HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE: 

MEMORATIVE  OK 

SETTLEMENT  OF   GALESBURG, 

DELIVERED  IN  TILE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  GALE8BURG, 

CTTJlSriEl     22,     186S. 
r>r      REV.     FLAVEL    BASCO1M, 


AND 

A    STATISTICAL    PAPER 


Bv  REV.  FREDERICK  T.  PERKINS, 


LIBRARY  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE: 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF  THE 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GALESBURG. 


22,    1866. 


B  y  REV.  FLAVEL  BASCOM, 

A  FORMER  PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


AND 

A   STATISTICAL  PAPER 


B  y  REV.  FKEDERIC  T.  PERKINS, 

PRESENT  PASTOR  or  THE  CHURCH. 


GALESBURG,  ILL. 

FREE  PRESS  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTING  HOUSE. 
1866. 


THE  ladies  of  the  First  Church  in  Galesburg,  remembering  all  the  way  in  which  the  Lord 
had  led  their  Pioneer  Fathers  and  Mothers,  resolved  to  commemorate  the  settlement  of  the 
place.  The  notice  of  the  proposed  celebration,  published  in  the  FREE  PKESS  of  June  17th, 
through  the  Chairman  of  their  committee,  Miss  M.  A.  WEST,  contains  the  following  state, 
ment: 

"The  First  Church  of  this  city  propose  commemorating  the  settlement  of  Galesburg  by  a 
"  Historical  Celebration  on  the  22d  day  of  June.  Thirty  years  ago  this  month,  Galesburg 
"  was  founded  by  a  noble  band  of  men  and  women,  who  left  home  and  friends  in  the  East,  not 
"  in  search  of  wealth,  but  simply  to  do  good,  by  founding  a  village  and  a  school,  which  should 
"  be  lights  in  a  dark  place. 

"One  by  one  these  fathers  and  mothers  are  passing  from  us;  with  them  will  die  very  much 
"  that  is  valuable  of  the  early  history  of  this  place. 

"  We  deem  it  therefore  a  duty  to  collect  this  history  now  while  we  may,  for  their  names 
"  and  the  memory  of  their  deeds  we  would  not  willingly  let  die." 

In  preparing  for  the  celebration,  they  engaged  th«  Kev.  FLAVEL  BASCOM — a  former  pastor  of 
the  church— to  deliver  a  Historical  Discourse,  and  the  Rev.  F.  T.  PERKINS— the  present  pas- 
tor— to  prepare  a  Statistical  Paper,  respeeting  the  growth  and  business  of  the  city.  At  the 
appointed  time — June  22d,  1866 — a  congregation  of  old  settlers  and  others  gathered  in  the 
First  Church,  at  3  o'clock  p.  M.,  and  listened  to  the  following  Discourse  and  Paper. 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 


Colonization  has  always  been  one  of  God's  Providential 
agencies  for  peopling  the  earth,  and  promoting  a  better  civili- 
zation. Emigration  has  its  disadvantages  and  dangers.  Sol- 
itary families  removing  from  the  precincts  of  Christian  civil, 
ization,  into  regions  destitute  of  religious  and  educational 
Institutions,  are  liable  to  grow  indifferent  to  learning  and 
religion,  and  to  drift  in  the  direction  of  barbarism.  This 
dangerous  tendency  is  fully  illustrated  in  the  state  of  so. 
ciety  in  some  sections  of  our  Western  country,  where,  remote 
from  the  atmosphere  of  social  refinement,  intellectual  culture, 
and  religious  sentiment,  people  that  once  had  higher  aspi- 
rations, have  ceased  to  think  of  those  things  which  are  pure 
and  lovely  and  of  good  report,  and  have  become  grovelling 
in  their  tastes,  dissolute  in  their  sentiments,  and  godless  in 
their  lives.  ' 

But  organized-giv&gatgpB  aims  to  carry  the  influences  of 
Christian  civilization  into  new  communities  and  to  plant 
there  the  germs  of  religious  and  educational  institutions, 
which  shall  spring  up  and  keep  progress  with  the  growth  of 
society,  and  ultimately  fill  the  community  with  their  preci- 
ous fruits.  If  this  can  be  done,  the  evils  of  solitary  emigra- 
tion are  not  only  avoided,  but  some  advantages  are  gained 
of  great  value.  Evils  exist  in  old  communities,  and  to  reme- 
dy them  is  not  easy.  Public  sentiment  is  there  conservative 
of  wrong  as  well  as  right,  customs  are  stereotyped,  and  'he 
who  sets  himself  to  put  away  existing  evils  and  reform  BO- 


HISTORICAL       DISCOURSE. 

<l—''X_/'Xv^X_/-^X^_x-^>'-s '~^S-*^S-**-S~*^s*^*-^s 

ciety,  needs  a  power  that  can  remove  mountains.  But  where 
a  new  community  is  planted  on  virgin  soil,  it  is  easier  to 
commence  right,  and  form  the  sentiment  and  the  habits  of 
that  community  in  conformity  to  right  principles.  The  old 
shackles  of  custom  are  more  easily  broken,  and  old  abuses 
discarded. 

When  God  therefore,  as  if  despairing  of  bringing  the 
whole  race  forward  together  in  a  process  of  intellectual  and 
religious  culture,  called  Abraham,  with  a  small  select  com- 
pany from  Ur,  of  the  Chaldees,  to  go  into  Canaan,  his  object 
was  by  establishing  a  new  community  there,  to  secure  an 
improved  state  of  society,  and  raise  up  a  community  that 
should  be  the  salt  of  the  earth.  It  would  be  easy  to  show 
from  history  that  by  organized  emigration,  the  arts  and 
sciences,  the  blessings  of  civil  liberty  and  true  religion  have 
been  propagated  in  the  world  and  preserved  in  all  ages.  The 
settlement  of  New  England  by  Christian  Colonies  from 
Great  Britain  is  an  ever  memorable  example  of  the  glorious 
possibilities  of  good  from  this  instrumentality.  Not  only 
were  important  towns,  and  settlements,  and  churches  built 
up  by  original  colonies  from  the  old  world,  but  these  settle- 
ments were  ever  sending  out  new  colonies  from  themselves, 
to  people  new  towns,  and  build  up  all  the  institutions  of 
civilized  and  Christian  communities.  It  was  this  mode  of 
settlement,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  that  made  New  Eng- 
land what  it  is,  in  intelligence  and  piety.  And  thus  New 
England  has  been  able  to  furnish  no  small  portion  of  the 
intelligence  and  sterling  moral  principle  that  has  saved  the 
nation. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims 
should  have  been  inclined  to  settle  the  valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi  by  colonies.  In  this  way  early  settlements  were  made 
in  Ohio,  which  were  eminently  successful,  e.  g.,  at  Marietta 
on  the  south,  and  in  many  localities  on  the  reserve.  In 
this  section  of  our  own  State,  numerous  colonies  from 
different  Eastern  States  were  planted  from  twenty-five  to 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

thirty-five  years  ago,  with  different  objects  and  various 
degrees  of  success.  Princeton  was  founded  by  a  colony 
from  Hampshire  and  Hamden  counties,  Massachusetts. 
Wethersfield  and  Andover  were  colonies  from  Connecticut. 
Tremont  and  Delaware  were  colonies  from  Boston  and 
Providence.  Other  places  less  prominent  had  a  similar 
origin.  But  the  Galesburg  colony  has  always  maintained  a 
pre-eminence  among  kindred  enterprises,  and  has  achieved 
a  success  which  no  other  has  yet  attained.  I  account  for 
this  fact  mainly  on  two  principles :  1st.  The  object  of  this 
colony  was  prominently  and  distinctively  philanthropic, 
benevolent  and  Christian.  Its  founders  designed  to  water 
others,  and  God  has  watered  them.  They  aimed  to  plant  a 
Christian  community,  to  maintain  a  high-toned  Christian 
morality,  and  they  found  that  godliness  was  profitable  unto 
all  things  having  the  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well 
as  of  that  which  is  to  come.  2d.  The  plan  of  this  colony 
was  more  complete.  Its  affairs  were  systematized,  with  a 
wise  adaptation  of  means  to  the  end  in  view. 

An  enterprise  with  such  an  object  and  such  a  plan, 
attracted  to  itself  a  class  of  men  who  could  appreciate  its 
importance,  and  were  able  to  carry  out  its  design,  without 
faltering,  or  turning  aside.  Such  men  engaged  in  such  a 
work,  are  in  the  way  to  secure  God's  blessing,  for  they  are 
laborers  together  with  him.  In  this  view  of  the  case  the 
prosperity  of  Galesburg  and  of  its  inhabitants  is  no  marvel. 
Let  other  communities  learn  from  it  the  secret  of  success. 

It  is  thirty  years  this  month,  since  the  earliest  pioneers  of 
this  colony  arrived  with  their  families  and  commenced  those 
labors  which  in  the  meantime  have  changed  a  desert  into  a 
populous  city,  distinguished  for  its  religious  and  literary  insti- 
tutions, and  commercial  prosperity.  It  is  a  fitting  time  for 
the  surviving  founders  of  such  institutions  and  of  such  a 
community,  to  commemorate  the  laying  of  their  foundations, 
and  to  set  up  their  monument  to  the  praise  of  Him  who 
hitherto  hath  helped  them. 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 


The  conception  of  this  enterprise  originated,  as  is  well 
known,  with  the  Kev.  George  W.  Gale,  then  residing  in 
Oneida  county,  New  York.  Mr.  Gale  had  been  connected 
with  the  Oneida  Institute,  in  which  many  valuable  young 
men  had  been  put  forward  in  a  course  of  study,  toward  the 
ministry,  and  he  had  become  deeply  interested  in  providing 
more  ample  means  for  the  Christian  education  of  the  youth 
of  both  sexes,  in  order  to  meet  the  wants  of  our  country 
and  the  world.  He  conferred  with  his  brethren,  and  was 
strengthened  by  their  approval  and  aided  by  their  sugges- 
tions. As  early  as  1834  he  seems  to  have  matured  a  well 
developed  plan  for  planting  a  colony  at  the  West,  to  be  a 
center  of  intellectual  and  moral  illumination.  In  speaking 
of  the  motives  by  which  he  and  his  associates  were  edu- 
cated, Mr.  Gale  says :  "  Their  views  were  not  restricted  to 
benefiting  their  own  descendants.  The  object  which  gave 
birth  to  the  enterprize  was  that  of  diffusing  over  an  impor- 
tant region  of  country,  at  an  early  period  of  its  settlement, 
the  combined  influence  of  education  and  religion." 

The  plan  of  the  colony  was  a  remarkable  combination 
of  philanthropy  and  sagacity.  It  was  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  religious,  educational  and  social 
advantages  which  the  plan  contemplated,  would  greatly 
enhance  the  value  of  the  wild  lands  in  the  vieinity  of 
their  town.  These  lands  were  to  be  purchased  by  the  col- 
ony at  the^government  price,  and  sold  to  individual  members 
or  other  purchasers  at  four  times  their  first  cost,  and  the 
profit  thus  accruing  was  to  endow  their  College  in  its  vari- 
ous departments.  And  the  purchaser  of  every  eighty  acre 
lot  received  a  scholarship  entitling  the  holder  to  twenty-five 
years'  tuition. 

The  original  design  was  to  raise  by  subscription,  $40,000, 
and  purchase  a  whole  township.  If  this  amount  had  been 
raised  and  a  whole  township  purchased  at  Government 
price,  it  would  have  still  left  more  than  $11,000  in  the 
Treasury  for  College  purposes,  and  when  the  subscribers 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

had  all  received  their  lands  at  an  average  of  $5  per  acre,  it 
would  have  left  15,000  acres  of  land  as  the  property  of  the 
College.  The  town  site  was  also  to  be  located  on  College 
land,  which  would  of  itself  furnish  no  inconsiderable 
endowment  for  an  infant  institution. 

The  unquestionable  wisdom  of  the  plan  is  demonstrated 
by  the  fact,  that,  although  but  about  one-half  of  the  sum 
originally  contemplated  was  ever  received  from  subscribers, 
and  only  10,746  acres  of  land  purchased  for  the  colony,  yet 
on  this  greatly  diminished  scale  of  operations,  the  enterprise 
has  proved  eminently  successful. 

In  the  summer  of  1835,  about  thirty  subscribers  to  the 
plan  of  a  colony  having  been  obtained,  an  exploring 
Committee  was  appointed,  consisting  of  Nehemiah  West, 
Thomas  Gilbert,  and  Timothy  B.  Jervis.  They  spent  some 
months  in  traveling  through  the  "West,  particularly  in 
Northern  Indiana  and  Northern  Illinois,  and  returned  with- 
out being  able  to  recommend  any  location  as  fully  meeting 
the  wishes  and  plans  of  the  colony.  They  were,  however, 
favorably  impressed  with  this  section  of  Illinois,  and 
believed  that  in  this  vicinity  a  suitable  tract  of  land  might 
be  found.  One  of  the  Committee  purchased  a  farm  for 
himself  in  the  vicinity  of  Knoxville,  feeling  confident  that 
the  colony  would  purchase  around  him.  The  Committee 
recommended  that  a  purchasing  Committee  be  immedi- 
ately sent  out,  prepared  to  make  farther  explorations  and 
secure  by  actual  purchase  the  most  suitable  tract  of  land 
they  could  find  in  this  part  of  the  State.  That  Committee 
was  appointed,  consisting  of  Kev.  Mr.  Gale,  Sylvanus 
Ferris,  Nehemiah  West,  and  Thomas  Simmons,  who  soon 
set  out  on  their  important  mission.  At  Detroit  they  were 
obliged  to  leave  Mr.  Gale  on  account  of  his  illness,  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Tompkins,  who  was  in  company  with  one  of  the 
Committee,  was  requested  to  act  in  Mr.  Gale's  place.  The 
Committee  arrived  at  Knoxville  about  the  middle  of  Octo- 
ber, 18»5,  and  their  attention  was  soon  directed  to  this  tract 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 


of  prairie,  adjacent  to  the  South,  side  of  Henderson  Grove 
which  the  exploring  Committee  seem  not  to  have  visited. 
Thej  decided  at  once  to  purchase  it  in  connection  with 
two  improved  farms,  and  a  tract  of  timber  in  the  grove. 
The  money  invested  in  the  purchase  fell  a  little  short  of 
$15,000. 

On  the  7th  of  the  succeeding  January,  1836,  the  stock- 
holders of  the  colony  met  at  Whitesboro,  heard  the  report 
of  their  Committee,  and  appointed  a  Board  of  Trustees  of 
their  embryo  College,  consisting  of  John  "Waters,  Sylvanus 
Ferris,  H.  H.  Kellogg,  Thomas  Simmons,  John  C. 
Smith,  Walter  Webb,  G.  W.  Gale,  N.  West,  Isaac  Mills, 
and  Samuel  Tompkins. 

"  Prairie  College  "  was  selected  as  the  name  of  their 
institution,  and  Galesburg  the  name  of  the  village. — 
Arrangements  were  made  for  appraising  the  lands,  and 
distributing  them  to  the  stockholders  and  selling  to  new 
purchasers ;  for  laying  out  the  village,  and  appraising 
the  lots  and  bringing  them  into  market,  reserving  Col- 
lege grounds,  and  lots  for  a  Church,  a  parsonage  and  a 
Cemetery.  Steps  were  taken  toward  procuring  at  an 
early  day,  material  for  a  College  building,  the  erection 
of  a  steam  saw-mill  and  of  a  public  house. 

As  early  in  the  Spring  of  1836  as  arrangements  could 
be  made,  the  Pioneers  of  the  Colony  began  their  long 
and  weary  pilgrimage  to  the  land  of  promise;  a  part 
with  their  own  teams,  and  a  part  by  water,  in  their  own 
canal  boat  through  the  New  York  and  Erie  canal  from 
Utica  to  Buffalo ;  on  Lake  Erie  to  Cleveland ;  by  the 
Ohio  canal  to  Portsmouth ;  thence  by  the  Ohio,  Missis- 
sippi and  Illinois  rivers  to  Copperas  Creek,  the  landing 
nearest  to  their  destination.  The  voyage  was  long,  their 
progress  was  glow,  the  boat  was  crowded,  the  weather  was 
warm,  the  alternations  of  scorching  heat  by  day,  and 
chilly  dampnes  by  night,  necessarily  subjected  them  to 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 


sickness,  which  very  few  if  any  escaped.  Three  died 
early  after  their  arrival,  Smith,  Mills,  and  Lyman, 
strong  men,  valuable  in  counsel  and  efficient  in  labors. 
Their  loss  was  deeply  felt,  their  survivors  were  afflicted 
but  no$  discouraged,  cast  down,  but  not  in  despair. 
They  were  well  aware  that  men  die,  but  God  lives  and  his 
cause  does  not  fail. 

In  the  autumn  of  1836  more  than  thirty  families  were 
temporarily  located  in  cabins  on  the  South  side  of  Hender- 
son Grove,  where  they  spent  the  first  winter  preparing  to 
improve  their  farms,  and  to  commence  the  building  of  their 
village  the  next  season.  Then  and  there  was  planted  the 
germ  of  this  city  with  its  noble  institutions,  and  of  the 
thriving  community  by  which  the  city  is  surrounded.  Had 
a  Directory  of  Log  City  (as  their  temporary  settlement  was 
called)  been  published  that  winter,  it  would  have  contained 
the  following  names:  Geo.  Avery,  H.  T.  A  very,  M.  Cham- 
berg,  L.  Chappel,  C.  S.  Colton,  H.  Conger,  L.  E.  Conger, 
P.  Dunn,  Geo.  Ferris,  H.  Ferris,  C.  Finch,  Rev.  Geo.  W.  Gale, 
L.  Gay,  D.  Griffith.  A.  Goodell,  Wm.  Hamblin,  J.  Raskins, 
Mrs.  Hitchcock,  A.  Kendall,  J.  Kendall,  E.  H.  King,  K  H. 
Losey,  H.  Lyman,  J.  Mills,  J.  McMullen,  R.  Payne,  Mrs. 
Phelps,  Philemon  Phelps,  P.  Richardson,  R.  Root,  J. 
Simmons,  T.  Simmons,  J.  C.  Smith,  E.  Swift,  Job.  Swift, 
S.  Tompkins,  A.  Tyler,  Rev.  J.  Waters,  D.  Wheeler,  J.  G. 
West,  N.  West,  H.  Wilcox. 

The  Spring  of  1837  witnessed  the  arrival  of  B.  Allen, 
D.  Allen,  N.  Allen,  S.  Allen,  F.  Buckingham,  Dr.  J.  Bunce, 
I.  Colton,  E.  Farnham,  S.  Ferris,  N.  O.  Ferris,  Wm.  Ferris, 
W.  Holyoke,  A.  Martin,  H.  H.  May,  J.  C.  Prentice,  L.  San- 
derson, R.  Skinner.  Other  families  came  in  the  autumn 
of  1837,  but  the  families  and  individuals  named  above 
founded  the  colony. 

And  now  commenced  in  earnest  the  stern,  long  protracted 
labors  and  trials,  incident  to  the  building  up  of  such  a  com- 
munity in  such  circumstances,  labors  and  trials  that  can 


10  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

x_X-v^*X^X^*'^-^^'>»*'*^^"N^^X-»^_^X^>^"S-^ 

never  be  appreciated  but  by  actual  experience.  The  major- 
ity of  the  first  settlers  had  but  limited  pecuniary  resources, 
and  these  were  soon  swallowed  up  in  current  family 
expenses,  in  building  thair  houses  and  improving  their 
farms.  In  the  meantime,  that  memorable  financial  crash 
had  occurred,  which  involved  the  whole  country  and  espe- 
cially the  West  in  the'greatest  embarrassment.  "Business  was 
stagnant ;  farmers  produce  was  a  drug  in  the  market  and 
would  scarcely  pay  for  transportation.  Markets  were  dis- 
tant, and  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  year  quite  inac- 
cessable.  Privation,  in  respect  to  very  many  of  the 
comforts  of  life,  was  therefore  unavoidable.  Money  was  so 
exceedingly  difficult  to  be  obtained  for  anything  the  settlers 
had  to  spare,  that  they  became  accustomed  to  its  absence, 
and  learned  to  transact  most  kinds  of  business  without  it. 
They  were  exceedingly  accommodating  in  their  traffic  with 
each  other.  Great  ingenuity  was^developed  in  the  barter  of 
their  commodities,  and  where  this  failed,  long  credits  con- 
tributed to  their  convenience.  But  for  taxes  and  postage, 
neither  the  barter  nor  credit  system  would  answer,  and  often 
letters  from  distant  loved  ones  were  suffered  to  remain  a  con- 
siderable time  in  the  post-office  for  the  want  of  twenty-five 
cents,  which  was  then  the  postage  on  all  our  Eastern 
correspondence. 

The  first  goods  were  sold  in  the  settlement  by  Mr.  C. 
8.  Colton,  who  opened  at  the  Grove  in  1836,  on  a  scale 
corresponding  to  the  size  of  the  infant  community.  The 
next  year  he  removed  his  store  to  the  village,  on  the  West 
side  of  the  Public  Square,  and  on  the  North  of  Main  street 
he  built  his  store  and  dwelling  under  the  same  roof.  In 
that  building,  for  almost  a  score  of  years,  a  growing  mercan- 
tile business  was  conducted  ;  remunerative  to  the  proprietor 
and  at  the  same  time  a  great  convenience  to  the  community. 
But  only  those  of  my  hearers  who  remember  what  it  was  to 
go  a  shopping  in  Galesburg  in  those  early  times  can  realize 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  11 

the  difference  between  then  and  now.  The  advantage,  in 
some  respects,  was  certainly  on  the  side  of  those  times. 
The  merchant  was  better  satisfied,  for  he  had  but  little 
competition  and  large  profits.  And  the  customer  had  much 
less  difficulty  in  satisfying  himself  that  he  had  found  the 
best  article  in  town.  That  could  speedily  be  done.  He  was 
not  expected  to  pay  anything  down  for  his  purchases.  No 
matter  how  low  his  funds  were,  he  need  not  go  empty  away. 
Goods  were  to  be  had  without  money,  if  not  without  price. 
As  to  price,  the  pioneer  merchants  of  the  West  sometimes 
claimed  that  they  made  but  one  per  cent,  profit.  What  they 
bought  for  one  dollar  they  sold  for  two,  and  that  was  gain- 
ing one  dollar  on  every  hundred  cents.  And  what  customer 
could  grudge  them  so  small  a  profit,  when  pay-day  was  so 
distant  ?  But  alas  !  those  pay  days,  however  long  delayed, 
would  come,  and  their  approach  was  not  among  the  smallest 
trials  of  pioneer  life. 

In  their  social  feelings  and  habits,  the  early  settlers  of 
Galesburg  were  exceedingly  free  and  cordial.  Though  many 
of  them  had  been  strangers  to  each  other  till  they  were 
brought  together  here,  they  were  so  homogeneous  in  their 
principles  and  aims  as  to  inspire  mutual  confidence  and  fra- 
ternal attachment  from  their  first  acquaintance.  Then  there 
were  no  classes  of  society,  and  no  artificial  rules  of  etiquette 
to  restrain  the  freedom  of  social  intercourse.  No  particular 
style  of  living  was  requisite  to  admission  into  the  best 
society.  If  a  family  had  not  chairs  enough  to  seat  their 
guests,  this  was  no  obstacle  to  their  receiving  and  entertain- 
ing company.  Boxes,  trunks  and  benches  made  convenient 
seats,  and  who  need  be  ashamed  of  such  furniture,  when  it 
was  the  fashion  in  the  best  of  families. 

There  is  something  in  pioneer  life  which  binds  the  early 
settlers  to  each  other  in  very  strong  attachments.  Their 
hardships  and  privations  teach  them  to  sympathize  with 
each  other  and  their  mutual  dependence  trains  them  to  hab- 


12  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

^S~*~S^-^**^*-^^S^/-*^l^+S~*-*r**~'-^S~*~* ^>—^>w^>^^V-^X^^-^XX^1*^^^.^Xj^N^^Sta^X^X_/™ 

its  of  mutual  helpfulness.  I  was  once  told  by  an  Illinoisan 
who  was  a  native  of  Kentucky,  that  he  had  settled  three 
Dew  countries  and  had  seen  all  sorts  of  society,  and  the  best 
society  to  be  found  anywhere  was  among  the  earliest  pioneers 
of  a  settlement.  They  lived  on  bear's  flesh  and  bread  made 
of  pounded  corn,  and  neighbors  were  so  distant  that  they 
knew  how  to  prize  them.  All  were  equal  and  all  were 
friendly.  But,  said  he,  as  soon  as  they  get  flour  bread  and 
meat  of  their  own  raising,  they  begin  to  be  proud  and  envi- 
ous, they  quarrel  and  have  law-suits,  and  there  is  no  more 
good  society.  Probably  his  theory  of  good  society  was 
somewhat  radical  and  extreme,  but  like  other  radical  ideas 
his  had  true  philosophy  in  them. 

A  prominent  object  of  the  projector  and  members  of  the 
colony  was  the  founding  of  an  institution  of  learning,  which 
should  afford  the  best  advantages  for  a  thoroughly  Christian 
education  in  its  various  departments,  at  the  lowest  practi- 
cable expense  to  the  pupils.  This  object  they  never  lost 
sight  of  for  a  moment.  Their  earliest  efforts  were  directed 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  this  part  of  their  plan.  The 
first  winter,  while  yet  occupying  the  rude  cabins  of  "  Log 
City,"  with  euch  accommodations  as  they  could  furnish,  a 
school  was  taught  by  a  gentleman  and  lady,  both  in  the 
common  and  academic  branches.  A  charter  for  the  institu- 
tion was  obtained  the  same  winter  from  our  State  Legisla- 
ture under  the  name  of  "  Knox  Manual  Labor  College." 
Immediate  steps  were  taken  for  the  erection  of  an  Academy 
building,  which  was  completed  in  the  fall  of  1838,  and 
opened  for  students  early  in  the  succeeding  winter  with  more 
than  thirty  pupils.  In  1838  Mr.  Kellogg  was  appointed 
President  of  the  institution,  Mr.  Gale,  Professor  of  Khet- 
oric  and  Moral  Philosophy,  and  Mr.  Losey,  who  had  hitherto 
conducted  the  Preparatory  department,  Professor  of  Mathe- 
matics and  Natural  sciences.  In  1841  the  College -was  fully 
organized  and  a  promising  class  entered  on  their  Fresh- 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  13 

man  year.  Mr.  Grant,  in  the  meantime  having  been 
appointed  Professor  of  Languages.  In  1843  the  institution 
met  with  a  severe  loss  by  fire.  Their  building  which  had 
been  erected  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  Female  depart- 
ment, at  an  expense  of  more  than  $5,000,  was  burned,  with, 
out  insurance.  In  1844  the  East  College  building  was 

o  o 

erected,  and  the  West  College  the  year  following,  after  the 
same  plan.  Besides  the  Lecture  and  Recitation  rooms, 
Library,  etc.,  these  two  buildings  were  designed  to  accom- 
modate about  forty  students  with  rooms  for  study.  In  1850 
both  these  buildings  were  enlarged  and  their  accommodations 
greatly  improved  at  a  considerable  expense.  In  1857  the 
Central  College  building  and  Female  Seminary  were  built 
at  an  expense  of  about  $80,000.  At  that  time  the  whole 
endowment  of  the  institution  was  estimated  at  not  less 
than  $400,000,  and  all  the  donations  it  had  received 
from  sources  Outside  of  the  colony  had  been  scarcely  $50,- 
000.  In  1845  Mr.  Kellogg  retired  from  the  Presidency  and 
Mr.  Blanchard  succeeded  him.  Under  his  administration 
the  first  class  of  nine  young  men  was  graduated,  five  of 
whom  became  ministers,  two  of  these  foreign  mission- 
aries, two  physicians,  one  Professor  in  College  and  one 
farmer.  In  1851  the  first  class  of  three  graduated  from  the 
Female  Collegiate  department,  a  three  years'  course  of 
study  having  been  provided  for  under  the  instruction  of  the 
College  Faculty,  with  Professor  Hitchcock  and  a  Female 
Principal  devoted  wholly  to  this  department.  This  depart- 
ment has  compared  favorably  with  the  other  in  numbers 
and  scholarship,  and  has  fully  justified  the  wisdom  of  the 
founders  of  the  College  in  providing  with  like  liberality  for 
the  education  of  both  sexes. 

Previous  to  the  last  financial  disaster  in  1857,  the  College 
had  attained  to  very  great  prosperity.  The  value  of  its 
endowment  far  surpassed  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of 
its  founders.  The  intersection  of  two  important  Railroads 


14  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

s~^^s~^~^/~^~/~^^*-s^/~^/-\^~^s~**-s-^s~\*^^ 

at  this  point  had  so  stimulated  all  kinds  of  business  as  to 
attract  a  large  population,  and  transform  a  small  interior 
village  into  a  flourishing  city.  This  brought  the  College 
lands  into  requisition  and  greatly  enhanced  their  value. 
Valuable  lands  which  were  originally  appropriated  condi- 
tionally to  a  Theological  Seminary,  by  the  failure  of  that 
condition,  reverted  to  the  general  funds  of  the  College.  In 
the  meantime  the  Railroad  Depot  having  been  located  upon 
their  border,  those  lands  became  city  lots,  and  were  sold  by 
the  foot  instead  of  the  acre.  The  reputation  which  the 
place  had  acquired  by  the  character  of  its  society,  and  of 
its  Religious  and  Literary  institutions  attracted  a  class  of 
population  which  had  in  themselves  the  elements  of 
thrift  and  prosperity.  And  while  the  College  shared 
largely  in  the  general  prosperity,  it  contributed  no  less 
to  promote  it. 

The  establishment  of  a  Theological  Seminary  as  a  part 
of  the  Educational  System  of  this  place,  was  prevented  by 
a  plan  long  since  formed,  and  not  yet  realized  by  our 
Presbyterian  brethren,  of  building  up  a  Denominational 
Seminary  at  Galena.  Thence  the  location  was  changed 
to  Chicago  or  Lake  Forest,  and  finally,  I  believe,  to  Car- 
linville,  to  which  place  it  was  invited  by  the  prospect  of 
endowment  from  lands  secured  at  an  early  day  by  Dr. 
Blackburn.  The  Manual  Labor  feature  of  the  College 
proved  to  be  less  valuable  than  was  anticipated.  A  few 
of  the  early  pupils  aided  themselves  to  some  extent  by 
Horticultural  and  Mechanical  labors.  But  experience, 
the  surest  test  of  theories,  did  not  justify  a  reliance 
upon  the  labors  of  the  pupils  during  term  time,  as  their 
chief  resource  for  defraying  their  expenses.  Manual  labor 
therefore  gradually  fell  into  neglect,  and  finally  was  dropped 
from  the  name  of  the  institution  by  an  amendment  of  the 
charter. 

The  faith  and  patience,  and  self-denial   with   which   the 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  15 

Faculty  of  the  College  struggled  through  the  long  years  of 
poverty  and  trial,  which  covered  at  least  one  half  of  its  his- 
tory, commend  them  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  all  the 
friends  of  Christian  education.  Their  nominal  salaries  were 
very  inadequate,  and  these  were  generally  largely  in  arrears- 
When  paid  they',were  sometimes  in  College  Scrip,  which  was 
current  only  at  a  considerable  discount.  But  God  gave 
them  endurance  and  brought  them  through  their  straits 
into  a  large  place,  and  rewarded  them  for  all  their  sacrifices. 
And  now  their  works  follow  them  in  the  precious  fruits 
gathered  from  the  seed  they  sowed.  The  able  scholars,  the 
earnest  and  efficient  men  and  women  whom  they  instructed, 
are  now  conferring  manifold  blessings  upon  the  world  by 
their  influence.  The  early  classes  in  the  institution,  were 
of  like  spirit  with  their  teachers,  and  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  principles  and  objects  of  the  colony.  Long  may  this 
spirit  and  these  principles  be  cherished  among  the  successive 
generations  of  pupils  that  shall  walk  these  classic  halls  ; 
and  never  may  the  public  sentiment  of  the  College  cease 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  objects  and  ends  for  which 
the  colony  "was  founded. 

How  inadequate  the  idea  entertained  by  most  peo- 
ple of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  of  founding  a  Col- 
lege. In  the  early  settlements  of  the  West  almost  every 
colony  and  nearly  every  ambitious  town,  aspired  to  be 
a  seat  of  learning ;  and  many  were  the  charters  obtained 
for  Colleges,  with  the  expectation  apparently  that  they  would 
grow  as  spontaneously  as  a  tree,  when  once  planted.  Not 
long  since,  a  town  not  a  hundred  miles  from  here,  adver- 
tised itself  as  a  very  eligible  site  for  a  College.  Through  its 
local  weekly  newspaper  it  informed  the  world  that  if  any 
person  desired  to  build  a  College,  they  would  do  well  to 
examine  the  advantages  of  that  locality  before  selecting  any 
other  site,  as  if  the  building  up  of  a  College  was  like  establish- 
ing a  store,  or  erecting  a  manufactory,  or  starting  a  newspaper. 


16  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSB. 

t//^S~<^^^S~*^S~^^^s^-/~*~S~^'^>-/^s^-'^^ 

No  one  that  has  not  tried  it,  can  conceive  of  the  outlay  of 
faith,  patience,  toil,  care,  and  money  demanded  in  making  up 
a  well  ordered  and  adequately  endowed  College.  Society  lit- 
tie  knows  how  much  it  is  indebted  to  those  who  have  done 
such  a  work.  There  are  men  now  in  this  community,  and 
some  have  passed  away,  who  have  for  a  long  series  of  years 
borne  burdens  of  care,  solicitude  and  responsibility  in  look- 
ing after  the  finances,  and  other  material  interests  of  this 
College,  for  which  money  could  but  poorly  compensate  them. 
And  yet  they  have  done  it  without  fee  or  commission,  and 
ometimes  without  thanks.  May  God  reward  them. 

There  have  graduated  from  the  male  department  of  Knox 
College,  131.  Of  these  38  became  Ministers,  3  Foreign 
Missionaries,  24  Lawyers,  and  quite  a  number  Professors 
and  Teachers.  One  hundred  and  eighteen  have  graduated 
from  the  Female  Collegiate  department,  many  of  whom  are 
filling  stations  of  great  usefulness  in  society.  The  aggregate 
of  the  names  found  on  the  catalogues  of  the  academic  depart- 
ment during  the  period  of  its  existence,  is  7687.  Or'  whom 
almost  one-half  have  been  females. 

But,  as  many  of  the  pupils  continue  through  several  years 
and  the  same  names  appear  in  several  successive  catalogues, 
it  is  estimated  that  but  about  5,000  differrent  persons  have 
been  instructed  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  in  some  of  the 
departments  of  the  institution.  The  good  influences  thus 
put  forth  in  operation  are  widely  diffused,  and  are  acting  on 
society  at  points  distant  from  each  other  and  in  manifold 
ways.  The  infinite  mind  alone  can  comprehend  the  results. 
About  one-third  of  the  gentlemen  graduates,  and  not  far 
from  the  same  proportion  of  the  young  gentlemen  connected 
at  different  times  with  the  Academy,  have  performed  valua- 
ble military  service  to  their  country  in  the  late  rebellion. 
Not  one  so  far  as  is  known  has  fought  against  his  country. 

A  most  unhappy  strife  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  for  some 
years  circumscribed  the  usefulness  of  the  institution,  and 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 


brought  all  its  interests  into  peril.  But  the  storm  has  spent 
its  fury  and  the  College  still  lives,  we  trust  to  bless  the  world 
through  a  long  series  of  unborn  generations.  Let  the  friends 
of  the  institution  learn  wisdom  from  their  experience,  and 
henceforth  strive  only  to  secure  the  great  ends  of  its  foun- 
ders ;  the  promotion  of  sound  learning,  scriptural  morality, 
and  pure  religion, 

Time  will  doubtless  convince  us  all,  as  it  already  has  some 
of  us,  that  the  strife  grew  not  out  of  wicked  designs,  so 
much  as  of  human  infirmities,  that  the  provocation  was  not 
all  on  one  side,  nor  the  forbearance  and  purity  of  motive 
monopolized  by  one  party.  In  the  meantime,  a  second  insti- 
tution of  learning,  not  on  the  programme  of  the  colony,  has 
sprung  into  existence,  and  has  attained  to  a  good  degree  of 
prosperity  and  an  influential  position  in  the  State.  The 
Universalists  in  this  place  and  vicinity,  encouraged  by  the 
liberal  donations  of  their  friends  abroad,  and  especially  of 
B.  Lombard,  Esq.,  established  Lombard  University  in  1852. 
They  have  an  able  Faculty,  and  one  good  building  well  tilled 
with  pupils.  The  institution  is  for  both  sexes. 

Galesburg  has  also  introduced  the  system  of  Graded 
Public  Schools,  and  by  providing  able  teachers,  and  erecting 
a  noble  building,  evinces  a  determination  to  educate  the 
whole  population. 

In  the  infant  settlement  at  "  Log  City,"  public  worship  on 
the  Sabbath  was  established  very  soon  after  the  arrival  of 
the  first  families,  with  preaching  when  practicable.  Mr. 
Gale  was  their  first  stated  supply.  Assisted  by  Kev.  John 
T.  Avery,  he  held  a  series  of  meetings  during  the  first  winter, 
and  the  spirit  of  God  owned  and  blessed  the  effort  in  the 
conversion  of  several  of  the  youth  in  the  congregation. 
They  organized  their  Church  on  the  25th  of  February,  1836, 
consisting  of  eighty-two  members,  Mr.  Waters  and  Mr. 
Gale  officiated  on  the  occasion,  assisted  by  Mr.  Noel,  of 
Knoxville,  who  represented  Schuyler  Presbytery.  The 


18  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

S~^'~\*/^Sr*^/~^S~^^^S^~/^*S^^^sn^f^^~\-/^ 

Church  was  Presbyterian  in  its  name  and  ecclesiastical  rela- 
tions, but  contained  a  strong  Congregational  element,  out  of 
deference  to  which,  the  modes  of  administering  its  affairs, 
were  somewhat  modified,  from  the  beginning. 

During  the  summer  of  1837,  some  families  having  pre. 
pared  residences  in  the  village  removed  hither,  and  then 
public  worship  was  held  alternately,  here  and  at  the  grove. 
The  first  room  used  for  Sabbath  worship  in  Galesburg,  was 
a  store-room  built  by  Deacon  Chambers,  on  Main  street 
and  afterward  used  for  mercantile  purposes.  In  the  winter  of 
1839  the  first  Academy  building  was  used  for  religious  meet, 
ings,  which  were  thenceforward  constantly  held  there  until 
this  house  was  opened  for  worship  in  1846.  The  seven  years 
in  which  the  Church  worshiped  in  the  old  Academy  were 
memorable  as  a  period  of  spiritual  prosperity  and  almost 
constant  progress.  Many  were  the  seasons  of  refreshing 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  there  enjoyed,  and  of  not  a 
few  now  in  Heaven,  and  of  many  on  their  way  thither,  it 
may  be  said,  "this  and  that  man  was  born  there."  Although 
worship  was  commenced  in  this  house  in  the  summer  of 
1846,  it  was  not  finished  and  dedicated  till  the  beginning  of 
1848.  For  some  three  years  after  this  it  was  the  only  house 
for  public  worship  in  the  village,  and  Christians  of  every 
denomination  were  accustomed  to  worship  together  here- 
in 1851  the  adjoining  Lecture  room  was  built,  which  has 
been  a  great  convenience  for  social  worship,  for  a  session 
room  and  for  meetings  of  general  interest,  but  miscellaneous 
in  character. 

Professor  Gale,  with  the  aid  of  Kev.  Mr.  Waters,  was 
acting  pastor  of  the  Church  the  first  three  years.  Mr. 
Foote  supplied  the  pulpit  for  one  year.  Mr.  Gale  then 
resumed  his  pastoral  labors  for  a  year,  and  was  succeeded  by 
President  Kellogg,  who  was  stated  supply  for  two  years. 
For  the  next  year  the  pulpit  was  supplied  by  Rev.  Messrs. 
Marsh,  Waters,  and  Hollister.  From  May  1844  till  the  end 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  19 

of  1845,  Rev.  Mr.  Parker  was  acting  pastor.  Mr.  Kellogg 
then  was  installed  as  pastor,  and  officiated  till  the  failure  of 
his  health  in  the  spring  of  1847.  President  Blanchard  suc- 
ceeded him  in  his  ministerial  and  pastoral  labors,  and  gave 
place  to  Mr.  Bascom  in  December,  1849,  whose  pastorate 
closed  in  May,  1856.  His  successor  was  Rev.  Charles  M. 
Tyler,  whose  pastoral  relation  to  the  Church  continued 
about  three  years.  Mr.  Barnard  was  then  stated  supply 
for  six  months,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  present  pastor, 
Rev.  F.  T.  Perkins,  who  already  lacks  but  little  of  hav- 
ing reached  the  length  of  the  longest  pastorate  which 
had  preceded  his.  Long  may  it  be  before  history  shall  give 
us  the  name  of  his  successor.  If  the  Church  has  not  been 
edified  by  the  ministry  of  these  thirty  years,  surely  it  has 
not  been  for  the  lack  of  variety. 

In  1845  the  government  of  the  Church  was  modified  and 
an  accommodation  plan  adopted,  which  secured  to  both 
Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  their  preferences,  and 
gave  the  Church  a  double  ecclesiastical  connection.  In 
1856  the  term  Presbyterian  was  dropped  from  her  name,  and 
she  has  since  been  known  as  the  first  Church  of  Christ, 
having  withdrawn  from  Presbytery  a  year  or  two  before. 
In  May,  1 854,  the  second  Presbyterian  Church  was  organ- 
ized with  thirty  members,  dismissed  from  this  Church  for 
this  purpose ;  and  in  December  of  the  same  year  the  Old 
School  Presbyterian  Church  was  organized  with  eighteen 
members.  In  November,  1855,  the  first  Congregational 
Church  was  organized  with  fifty  members,  most  of  whom 
were  dismissed  from  this  Church  to  join  the  new  organization. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Baptist  and  the 
Swedish  Evangelical  Lutheran  were  organized  in  the  order 
now  named,  in  1847,  1848  and  1852.  In  October,  1856,  a 
Swedish  Methodist  and  also  a  Colored  Methodist  Church 
were  organized  and  subsequently  an  Episcopal  Church,  a 
German  Lutheran,  a  Colored  Baptist,  and  a  Roman  Catho- 


20  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

He.  A  Universalist  Church  has  also  held  a  somewhat 
prominent  position  in  the  place  for  about  twelve  or  fif- 
teen years.  Thus  we  see,  while  this  spacious  house  of 
worship  met  the  wants  of  all  Galesburg  fifteen  years  ago, 
fourteen  houses,  several  of  which  are  spacious  and  handsome 
edifices,  are  now  demanded.  If  such  increased  church 
accommodations  are  really  needed  and  filled,  it  indicates  a 
degree  of  growth  and  prosperity,  both  temporal  and 
spiritual,  which  is  rarely  witnessed. 

This  Church  truly  deserves  to  be  called  the  Mother  of 
Churches,  and  of  some  of  her  offspring  she  may  well  be 
proud,  while  some  of  the  younger  generation  around  her, 
would  probably  prefer  to  trace  their  lineage  to  a^source  more 
remote,  if  not  more  illustrious.  The  present  membership 
of  the  Church  is  362,  still  making  her  a  little  larger,  as 
she  always  ought  to  be,  than  any  of  her  descendants. 

This  Church  has  always  been  self-sustaining.  Though 
planted  in  a  new  and  uncultivated  missionary  field,  her  rela- 
tion has  always  been  that  of  a  nursing  mother  to  the  feebler 
and  more  destitute,  rather  than  a  recipient  of  other's  bounty. 

This  Church  and  colony  have  from  the  beginning  taken 
high  and  unequivocal  ground  on  the  questions  of  Reform 
which  have  agitated  the  nation.  The  original  colony  and 
the  early  settlers  were  of  one  heart  and  one  mind,  in 
this  respect.  At  their  meeting  in  "Whitesboro,  the  winter 
before  the  settlement  was  begun,  a  committee,  consisting  of 
Smith,  West,  and  Tompkins,  was  appointed  to  report  what 
measures  should  be  taken  to  guard  the  morals  of  the  colony. 
I  do  not  find  a  formal  report  of  this  committee,  but  I  do  find 
that  a  prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing drinks  on  the  premises,  is  inserted  in  every  title  deed  of 
real  estate,  sold  by  the  colony,  and  forfeiture  to  the  College 
is  the  penalty  of  violating  that  condition.  I  infer  that  this 
very  important  safe-guard  to  the  morals  of  Galesburg  was 
thus  early  recommended  by  that  committee.  Wise  fore- 
thought !  Precious  legacy  to  those  that  shall  come  after 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  21 

•-'^<~'~*-/~^'^S^S^S^'^<~i'f\-S~^S^-S~\^^ 

them  !  Let  Galesburg  prize  the  precious  inheritance  received 
from  the  founders  of  the  place,  of  exemption  from  the  curse 
of  the  Liquor  traffic ;  and  let  her  hand  down  to  coming  gen- 
erations, that  inheritance  unsullied.  Shame  on  the  descend- 
ants or  successors  of  such  men  as  founded  this  colony,  that 
shall  ever  consent  to  sell  their  birth-right  of  Temperance, 
and  of  uncompromising  hostility  to  the  Liquor  traffic.  Total 
abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks  and  opposition  to  slavery 
have  been  a  condition  of  membership  in  this  Church  from 
the  beginning. 

The  members  and  the  ministry  of  this  Church  have 
always  been  in  favor  of  carrying  radical  anti-slavery  princi- 
ples into  politics  as  well  as  into  religion.  They  have 
insisted  on  voting  as  well  as  praying  for  liberty.  And 
she  has  done  what  she  could  to  save  the  country,  and  give 
liberty  to  her  oppressed  millions,  not  only  by  her  prayers 
and  votes,  but  by  sending  into  the  army  her  full  quota  of 
brave  soldiers  who  knew  how  to  fight  the  battles  of  freedom. 

It  only  remains  now  to  address  a  few  words  of  congrat- 
ulation to  the  surviving  founders  of  Galesburg  and  of  its 
noble  institutions.  My  friends,  yours  has  been  a  favored  lot. 
It  was  a  kind  Providence  that  chose  you  for  such  a  work  as 
God  has  permitted  you  here  to  accomplish.  You  have  been 
benefactors  of  your  country  and  of  mankind.  Not  only 
this  community,  but  the  world  owes  you  a  debt  of  gratitude 
for  the  moral  heroism  with  which  you  gave  yourselves  to 
this  work  ;  for  the  faith  and  patience  with  which  you  prose- 
cuted it;  for  the  self-denial  and  fortitude  with  which  you 
endured  hardness,  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ. 

You  have  not  forgotten,  and  we  will  not  forget,  the  long 
years  in  which  you  had  to  labor  and  wait  for  the  realization 
of  your  hopes.  The  early  history  of  your  enterprise  seemed 
a  day  of  small  things  ;  hope  was  often  deferred  ;  embarrass- 
ments, trials  and  discouragements  were  multiplied  and  pro- 
longed. But  the  bow  of  promise  always  spanned  your 
sky,  and  hope  was  an  anchor  to  your  souls.  The  leaders  and 


22  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

x^x^"N^s_>'"s^\/>'^/~s_x~"^y'N^'x>'~N^^ 

prominent  actors  in  your  enterprize  are  worthy  of  great 
praise ;  but  they  deserve  not  all  the  honor ;  it  is  the  rank 
and  file  in  the  army  which  receive  and  give  the  hard  blows 
that  bring  the  victory.  And  so  it  has  been  with  the  toiling 
farmers,  the  industrious  mechanics,  and  the  patient  and  work- 
ing housewives,  that  have  fought  the  battles  of  this  thirty 
years'  struggle,  and  achieved  the  victory  which  we  celebrate 
to-day.  I  congratulate  you  on  your  success ;  and  in  the  name 
of  the  community,  and  of  the  thousands  who  have  shared 
the  advantages  of  your  institutions,  I  thank  you  for  all  you 
have  done  and  suffered  for  their  benefit.  And  in  your 
behalf,  I  thank  God  that  he  has  spared  you  to  this  day  to  wit- 
ness the  results  of  your  enterprise.  Did  I  say  results  ?  Ah. ! 
these  are  not  yet  developed.  What  we  see  and  rejoice  in 
to-day  are  only  some  of  the  first  fruits ;  the  full  harvest  will 
be  reaped  by  successive  generations,  long  after  you  have 
gone.  And  the  full  value  of  the  results  can  be  known  only 
in  eternity.  But  beware  my  friends,  that  you  cherish  not 
the  spirit  that  says :  "  This  is  great  Babylon  that  I  have 
built."  Remember  always,  that  he  that  planteth  is  nothing, 
and  he  that  watereth  is  nothing,  but  God  that  giveth  the 
increase.  To  God  belongs  all  the  glory  of  your  achievements. 
Many  with  whom 'you  started  this  enterprise,  are  not 
here  to-day.  You  cherish  their  memory  with  unusual  ten- 
derness and  affection  ;  you  went  with  them  to  the  house  of 
God,  and  took  sweet  counsel  with  them  in  the  days  of  dark- 
ness and  trial ;  and  you  rejoiced  with  them  in  seasons  of  pros- 
perity and  of  spiritual  refreshing.  Would  that  time  would 
permit  me  to  speak  fitting  words  of  eulogy  for  each.  But  it 
is  not  needful ;  their  very  names  recall  the  history  of  their 
lives,  and  their  best  eulogies  are  your  memories  of  what 
they  were.  Smith,  Mills,  and  Lyman,  fell  on  the  threshold 
of  your  enterprise.  Swift,  West,  and  Conger,  bore  with  you 
the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day  for  a  few  years  and  then 
went  early  to  their  reward.  Bergen,  Prentice,  McMullen, 
Goodell,  Holyoke.  Williams,  Dunn,  Weeks,  Willard, 


HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE.  23 

Leonard,  and  Gary,  are  cherished  in  your  memories  as 
brothers  beloved,  Ferris,  Buiice,  Waters,  and  Gale,  were 
strong  pillars  in  the  edifice  you  were  rearing.  But  they, 
too,  having  finished  their  work,  have  gone  to  their  rest. 
Nor  will  you  forget  Spencer,  whom  you  first  learned  to  love 
as  a  pious,  active  Christian  pupil  in  your  Academy,  and 
afterward  as  a  minister,  honored  of  God,  in  leading  many  souls 
among  you  to  the  Saviour. 

Others,  who  were  for  a  time  identified  with  you,  have  been 
called  to  other  fields,  and  still  live  to  labor  elsewhere  for  the 
same  cause.  Among  this  class  the  names  of  Kellogg,  Foote, 
Parker,  and  Blanchard,  will  always  be  prominent  in  your  grate- 
ful recollections.  May  they  long  live  to  serve  God  and  their  gen- 
eration as  faithfully  and  successfully  as  they  did  with  you.  Mr. 
Kellogg  had,  from  the  beginning,  aided  the  interests  of  the 
colony  by  his  judicious  counsels  and  his  liberal  pecuniary  assis-< 
tance.  While  he  was  President  of  the  College,  and  white 
pastor  of  the  Church,  his  whole  heart,  influence,  and  resources 
were  enlisted  in  putting  forward  the  interests  of  the  colony,  and 
in  accomplishing  its  grand  designs.  His  unselfish  and  magnani- 
mous services  deserve  a  lasting  remembrance. 

How  wonderful  has  been  the  period  of  time,  covered  by  your 
enterprise  !  What  changes  have  transpired ;  what  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  useful  arts,  in  the  facilities  of  travel,  and  of 
transmitting  intelligence !  What  growth  of  our  country  has 
been  witnessed ;  what  progress  in  our  State  within  these  thirty 
years.  Well  do  you  remember  the  political  parties,  and  the 
political  questions  of  thirty  years  ago.  Where  are  they  now  ? 
You  remember  the  first  votes  you  gave  for  an  anti-slavery 
ticket.  It  seemed  a  day  of  small  things  on  your  side,  but  now 
your  principles  govern  Congress,  and  rule  the  Nation.  You 
remember  those  anti-slavery  prayer  meetings  in  the  old  Acad- 
emy. Look  which  way  you  jrould  for  he]p  to  the  slave, 
you  could  see  only  a  dead  wall  high  as  Heaven.  No  door 
of  hope  was  opened,  but  you  believed  that  he  who  opened 
the  Ked  Sea  for  the  deliverance  of  his  ancient  people  from 
oppression,  could  bring  Liberty  to  our  oppressed  millions,  with 
a  mighty  hand  and  an  outstretched  arm.  You  there  prayed 


24  HISTORICAL      DISCOURSE. 

in  faith,  and  by  terrible  things  in  righteousness  God  has 
answered  you.  "  Jehovah  has  triumphed,  his  people  are  free." 
In  view  of  what  you  have  been  permitted  to  witness  in 
your  day  and  generation,  what  may  you  not  hope  for 
in  the  future  !  This  world  is  to  be  disenthralled,  reclaimed, 
and  regenerated.  The  bright  visions  of  prophecy  are  to  be 
realized.  All  shall  know  the  Lord,  and  the  earth  shall  be 
filled  with  His  glory.  As  you  close  up  your  earthly  labors, 
let  it  be  in  the  full  confidence  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  shall 
universally  prevail ;  and  in  thankfulness  that  you  have  been  per- 
mitted to  do  something  to  prepare  the  way  for  its  coming  and 
triumph. 


STATISTICAL     PAPER. 


Business  here  began  in  1836,  with  the  purchase  of  10,746,81-100  acres  of 
land  for  $14,821,10-100 ;  which,  with  the  expenses  of  exploration,  amounted 
to  $16,559,7-100.  In  1836  colonists  began  to  take  possession,  and  to  build 
log  cabins  at  Henderson  Grove. 

During  that  season  building  was  the  principal  business  of  our  Pioneer  Fath- 
ers. Within  a  year  "  Log  City "  was  of  some  renown.  Like  other  cities 
with  room  enough  in  the  great  world  outside — "  Log  City  "  had  too  great  a 
population  for  its  accommodation?.  Hence  three  or  four  families  were  crowded 
into  a  single  cabin.  One  Philemon  Phelps,  not  following  the  fashions  of  the 
"city,"  went  out  in  the  country  in  the  autumn  of  '36,  and  on  the  open  prairie 
built  the  first  frame  house  ;  a  house  known  in  "  modern  times  "  as  the  old 
"  Holyoke  house."  It  stood  on  the  lot  now  covered  by  Mr.  Mathews'  new 
brick  store,  occupied  by  Mr.  Hawkinson,  on  Main  street,  east  of  Prairie. 
Besides  building  cabins  the  colonists,  during  that  summer,  raised  a  little  corn, 
a  few  potatoes  and  garden  vegetables  on  the  "  colony  farm,"  purchased  a  few 
cows,  and  went  seventy  miles  to  mill.  During  the  cold  winter  of  1836-7  those 
men  and  women  had  a  good  time  amid  their  many  privations,  to  meditate  on 
something  good  for  this  portion  of  Illinois. 

With  the  spring  of  '37  came  new  families  and  an  increase  of  business.  Geo. 
Avery  built  the  second  frame  house,  which  was  afterwards  moved  out  into  the 
world  to  the  lot  now  occupied  by  his  present  residence  of  brick.  The 
old  house,  still  stands  across  the  way  a  little  east  of  its  former  position,  a 
relic  of  olden  times,  covered  now  as  then  with  "  Hoosier  boards  " — boards 
rived  and  shaved  about  a  yard  in  length.  During  the  summer,  "  The  Prairie  " 
says  Mr.  Gale  "  was  the  theater  of  a  busy  activity  in  the  erection  of  build- 
ings and  opening  of  farms."  Mr.  Gale's  statement  that  the  Academy  building 
was  erected  during  this  year  (1837)  must  be  a  mistake  ;  for  the  account  books 
of  the  College  show  that  it  could  not  have  been  commenced  till  about  June,  nor 
completed  before  December  of  1838. 

A  settlement  had  been  fairly  made  ;  it  consisted  of  those  who  came  in  1836 
— 173  individuals,  and  those  who  came  in  the  spring  of  1837 — 59  individuals — 
total  232.  Of  these  165  or  71  per  cent,  are  still  living ;  of  those  then  married 


26  STATISTICAL      PAPER. 

•~^_^^S^^r~*+S~^^~*^f***-^^S~**-'^~'^^ 

nearly  60  per  cent,  are  still  living ;   of  those  then  unma:  ried  over  80  per  cent. 

These  are  remarkable  facts ;  those  families  had  been  accustomed  to  the 
comforts  of  good  Eastern  homes.  Here  they  lived  in  log  cabins  made  of  green 
timber,  in  one  case  without  a  floor,  and  with  several  families  in  a  cabin,  experi- 
encing a  winter  so  unusually  cold  that  old  "Hoosiers"  and  "Suckers"  insis- 
ted that  the  Yankees  brought  it  along  with  them. 

Then,  too,  some  of  these  men  had  passed  the  middle  of  life.  One,  Mr. 
Chambers,  was  fifty  years  old,  and  yet,  after  thirty  years,  70  per  cent,  are  still 
living.  Of  men  then  regarded  as  within  the  shadows  of  age,  we  have  now 
with  us,  Deacons  Simmons,  Tompkins,  and  Chambers.  Long — long — may  the 
good  men  remain — bright  lights  in  the  Church  of  God.  A  few  years  after  the 
settlement  of  this  colony,  a  gentleman,  in  a  stage  coach  pronounced  all  Illinois 
so  unhealthy  that  there  was  not  a  place  in  it  where  a  family  of  children  could 
be  raised.  Mr.  W.  Selden  Gale  replied  to  him:  "In  the  place  where  I  live, 
fifty-three  children  were  born  in  the  first  two  years  of  the  settlement,  of  whom 
fifty-two  are  living." 

It  is  not  easy  to  realize  that  we  have  among  us  so  large  a  number  of  men 
and  women  who  remember  when  between  the  high  ground  known  as  the  "Knox 
place,"  two  and  a  half-miles  south-east  of  us,  and  Henderson  Grove,  three  and 
a  half-miles  north-west;  there  was  nothing  but  wild  prairie  grass  and  rosin 
weed,  not  a  tree  or  shrub,  nothing  to  obstruct  the  vision,  excepting  the  cabin 
of  Mr.  Luther  Gay,  a  little  this  side  of  the  grove,  a  low  cabin,  yet,  as  standing 
out  on  a  naked  prairie,  it  so  loomed  up  that  lor  years  it  was  called  the  "  Light- 
house." 

Those  Pioneers  were  mostly  Christians,  and  strictly  temperate  in  all  their 
habits.  Their  remarkable  longevity  asserts  that  temperance  and  godliness 
are  profitable  unto  all  things.  Besides,  these  Pioneers  had  a  great  idea  ;  they 
came  for  a  good  work,  and  were  cheerful  and  happy  amid  their  trials — never 
happier — so  they  say ;  and  hence,  like  the  older  Pilgrims,  they  were  of  such 
stuff  as  not,  because  of  trials,  to  wish  themselves  back  again.  Such  men  had 
a  right  to  live  ;  a  right  resting  on  a  Divine  promise. 

The  population  of  Galesburg  in  1846  was  about  800  ;  in  1856 — 4000 ;  and  in 
1866—8000,  or,  including  the  township,  9000, 

Galesburg  has  had  a  healthy  growth, 

Half  a  township  in  1835  cost $16,559 

Total  assessments  in  1849 64,945 


On    ihe  Fame  basis  assessments   in 

1866  would  be $1,600,00 


1855 399,700 

This  property  es-timated  at  its  full  value,  would  amount  to  at  least  $5,000,000- 
The  lot  on  which  stands  the  store  of  Innes,  Murdoch  &  Co.,  66x112  feet,  cost 

them  $7000. 

The  mercantile  business  of  Galesburg  was  commenced  in  the  spring  of  1837 

by  C.  S.  Col  ton,  in  a  log  cabin  at  the  Grove.    After  a  few  months  he  removed 

to  the  building  which  he  had  erected  for  his  dwelling  and  store  on  the  corner  of 

the  public  square,  now  occupied  by  his  large  brick  block. 


STATISTICAL       PAPER. 


27 


In  that  store  he  did  most  of  the  business  of  the  town  for  ten  years.  A  por- 
tion of  that  old  store  now  stands  on  Chambers  street  between  Main  and  North, 
revealing  through  the  paint  the  name,  "C.  S.  Colton"  on  one  end,  and  on  the 
street  side,  "Books,  Stationery,  Paints,  etc.,  etc."  In  its  chimney  are  some  of 
the  first  brick  made  in  Galesburg.  Knoxville  and  Henderson  were  Hie  places 
for  trade  during  those  years.  For  a  long  time  if  one  wanted  apiece  of  stove 
pipe  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Knoxville,  perhaps  to  Farmington,  and  sometimes 
eren  for  thread  and  needles. 

In  1840  Mr.  Colton  went  into  the  pork  trade  ;  and  collected  from  the  two 
counties  of  Knox  and  Warren,  192  hogs — all  he  could  buy.  These  were  driven 
to  Warsaw,  slaughtered  and  shipped  to  New  Orleans,  at  a  loss  of  ten  per  cent. 
In  1841  he  purchased  1250,  and  made  nothing.  In  1842  the  standard  price  of 
hoga  was  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  hundred'.  There  were  no  beef  cattle  to  be 
had.  Dealers  from  Ohio  bought  and  drove  off  the  steers,  as  dealers  from  this 
State  have  gone  to  Arkansas  and  Texas  for  young  stock  to  be  driven  home  and 
fatted  for  market.  Wheat  was  carted  to  Chicago  and  sold  at  45  to  50cts  per 
bushel. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Chambers  opened  a  store  on  the  corner  of  the  Square, 
now  occupied  by  Olmsted  &  Downs.  Then  followed  several  unsuccessful 
attempts  at  the  mercantile  business  ;  till  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Knoxville,  established 
a  branch  store  here.  Then  came  the  Willards  who  built  up  a  good  business. 

During  the  second  decade  the  business  of  the  place  was  constantly  increasing 
with  the  tide  of  population,  and  growing  prosperity  of  the  College.  At  the 
end  of  this  period  all  were  alive,  many  were  building  air  castles,  some 
were  running  wild  with  speculation.  A  brilliant  bubble  had  been  blown  all 
over  this  Western  country.  Great  cities  were  about  to  spring  out  of  the 
ground;  everybody  was  soon  to  become  rich.  Railroads  were  to  run  in  every 
direction;  and  Galesburg  become  a  great  city.  How  that  great  bubble  burst 
in  1857  is  well  remembered,  and  the  depression  that  followed  ;  with  the  embar- 
rassments and  losses  growing  out  of  the  miserable  "  wild  cat"  banks  and 
"  stump  tail "  currency  which  so  cursed  this  State. 

During  the  last  decade  the  business  of  our  city  has  had  a  marked  growth. 
The  following  figures,  obtained  from  the  U.  S.  Assessor,  or  directly  from  busi- 
ness parties,  though  given  in  round  numbers,  closely  approximate  to  the  actual 
amount  of  business  done  here  in  twelve  months  : 


Stock  and  Produce  trade 41,600,000 

Dry  Goods 515,000 

Cloths  and  Clothing 290,000 

Boots    and    Shoea    (outside  of  Dry 

Good  stores) 35,000 

Fancy  Goods  and  Toys 47,000 

Groceries 460,000 

Hardware 154,000 


Agricultural    articles $125,000 

Drugs,  etc 60,000 

Crockery  (outoide  Grocery  stores) 12,000 

Musical  Instruments 40,000 

Sewing  Machines 6,000 

Books  and  Stationery 30,000 

Lumber ,  5,000,000  feet 185,000 

Leather 18,000 


Amount,  exclusive  ef  many  smaller  interests $3,606,000 


STATISTICAL      PAPER. 

-•X^-N^-v^-N^X^^X'X/'v^ 

MANUFACTURES  : 
WO.  OF   ME*   EMPLOYED.  WAGES.  PRODUCTS. 

Wagons  aud  Plows 50 .$35,000 $53,000 

Corn  Planters 150 *  96,000 $200,000 

Sugar  Mill,  Hay  Press,  Valve     )      1no                                    720ftn  440000 

and  Foundry  Establishments/  -100- 72.000 440,000 

Furniture 22. 12,000 45,000 

(Including  both  manufactured  )      . 
and  sold)  / 

Harness,  Shoes,  Household  Goods..  41 : 26,000 80,937 

Brick  (part  of  a  year) 40 8,500 20,000 

Preparing  Hemp  for  Market 25 „  10,000 25,000 

Marble  Head  Stones 11,000 

Pumps „ 6,787 

Candy 1,668 

Sorghum,  14  000  gallons 14,000 

Soap „ 25,000 

Gents'  Clothing _ _ 60,000 

Millinery 40,000 

Photographs $12  000 .Picture  Frames $4000 16,000 

Total .$1,038,392 

As  the  party  of  Hugh  Conger  and  Nehemiah  West  were  approaching  the 
chosen  site  for  their  colony,  on  the  first  of  June,  1836,  they  stopped  for  the 
night  near  what  is  now  called  Victoria,  They  were  short  of  provisions.  The 
family  where  they  called  had  no  meal.  Corn  was  ground  in  a  hand  mill,  and 
"corn  dodgers"  made  for  supper.  The  next  day  dealing  out  their  scanty  supplies 
to  the  younger  members  of  the  party,  they  made  their  way,  weary  and  hungry, 
to  Henderson  Grove,  gathered  up  what  they  could  for  supper  from  the  Hoosier 
families  scattered  through  the  "  timber ;"  and  took  their  first  meal  from  a 
table,  consisting  of  a  door  from  an  old  Hoosier  cabin,  resting  on  boxes.  There 
was  so  little  wheat  in  this  region  then  that  a  colonist  in  some  instances  spent 
a  week  in  gathering  up  half  a  dozen  bushels  of  it ;  and  then  spent  another 
week  in  carrying  it  to  Andover,  (thirty  miles)  or  further  to  Oquaka  and  waiting 
his  turn  for  his  "grist,"  or  even  seventy  miles  to  a  steam  mill  at  Pekin.  There 
was  indeed  a  mill  nearer,  "Roger's  mill,"  more  recently  known  as  "  Olmsted's." 
But  in  day  times  it  could  not  grind.  Now,  if  you  wish  it,  mills  right '„  at  your 
door  can  grind  for  you  1,000  bushels  in  twenty-four  hours.  When  all  running, 
our  mills  grind  daily  400  bushels  of  wheat,  and  100  bushels  of  corn ;  proceeds 
for  a  year  about  $250,000.  There  were  slaughtered  for  our  consumption  last 
year  1760  beef  cattle ;  859  sheep  ;  443  hogs  ;  making  the  business  of  our  meat 
markets  amount  to  $100,000. 

The  growth  of  our  city  is  shown  by  the  increase  of  its  Post  Office  business. 
A  newspaper  paragraph  recently  stated  that  among  the  worthy  deeds  which  an 
aged  couple  had  never  done  was  the  mailing  of  a  letter. 


*    For  eight  months.   During  the  summer  months  many  of  these  men  work  as  carpenters. 

f  Some  of  the  furniture  of  the  Pioneers  was  easily  made,  as  a  "spring  bedstead"  with  but 
one  post.  Taking  the  corner  of  a  log  cabin,  bore  holes  in  the  logs  for  thre«  corners,  set  up  a 
pest  for  the  fourth,  then  with  the  sides  and  ends  set  in  and"  fastened,  lay  across  "Hoosier 
boards,"  with  a  good  spring  to  them  and  you  have  a  luxury  as  compared  with  a  "puncheon 
bed."  The  rule  for  travellers  in  the  early  days  was  one  puncheon  to  a  man.  The  story  is  that 
a  company  was  BO  crowded  one  night,  that  they  could  lie  only  on  one  side;  and  as  one  rose  in 
the  night,  the  rest  improving  the  chance  for  relief,  turned  back,  BO  that  on  seeking  his  pun- 
cheon again,  the  man  up  could  get  in  only  as  he  waked  the  whole  row  and  set  them  up 
edgewise. 


STATISTICAL      PAPER.  29 

S*^/~**-S^S~\^**/^*S^*f^S~*^i^^^lf^^^ 

They  had  msfecf.  So  have  Egyptian  mummies.  A  friend  of  mine  was  asked 
not  long  ago,  in  North  Carolina,  if  he  thought  the  United  States  Government 
would  ever  catch  Jefferson  Davis.  Semi-civilized  communities  have  little  use 
for  mails.  As  communities  rise  in  civilization  they  read  and  write,  and  still  rise 
as  they  increase  their  correspondence. 

The  business  of  this  office  has  always  been  large  for  the  population.  The 
colonists  for  a  year  went  to  Knoxville  for  their  mails;  and  brought  them  thence 
once  a  week  on  horseback.  During  the  winter  of  ISSY-S,  the  people  of  "Log 
City  "  took  their  letters  from  the  window-sill  of  Bev.  Mr.  Gale ;  and  paid 
twenty-five  cents  for  a  letter  from  the  East,  and  this  for  each  separate  piece  of 
paper,  however  light  or  small.  It  was  not  long  before  the  colonists  rejoiced 
in  a  semi-weekly  and  then  a  tri- weekly  mail.  When  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Holcomb,  of 
Knoxvile,  advertised  his  stage  to  run  from  Peoria  to  Oquawka,  and  touch  at 
certain  flourishing  villages,  Galesburgwas  not  named. 

After  much  difficulty  the  colonists  obtained  an  office,  and  a  mail  direct.  The 
mails  were  not  heavy  in  those  days,  consisting  only  of  a  few  letters,  a  few  cop- 
ies of  the  New  York  Observer,  Evangelist,  and  New  Tork  Express,  bringing 
the  news  two  or  three  weeks  old.  Mr.  W.  Selden  Gale,  who  was  postmaster  in 
1850-3,  remembers  when  on  a  Monday  morning,  an  unusually  lar^e  mail  of 
one  hundred  letters  was  sent  off.  The  income  of  the  office  did  not  probably 
exceed  $1500  during  either  of  these  years. 

The  returns  from  this  office  for  the  quarter  ending  March  31st,  1866,  as  fur. 
nihsed  by  the  postmaster,  C.  E.  Carr,  Esq.,  through  his  chief  clerk,  Mr.  George 
Colville,  present  the  following  facts  : 

"Quarterly  sales  of  stamps  and  stamped  envelopes $2,455,07 

"       amount  of  unpaid  postage  collected. 230,60 

"  "        "    postage  upon  regular  newspapers  and  magazines '. 95,94 

Upwards  of  2,000  regular  newspapers  are  receive  d  weekly,  from  all  parts  of 
the  country,  for  delivery  to  subscribers.  Among  religious  papers  the  Inde. 
pendent  stands  first,  with  110  subscribers.  Number  of  boxes  rented  nearly 
1,000. 

Gross  receipts  of  Postoffice  quarterly  (average). — $3,021,05 

Net          "       to  U.  S.  after  defraying  expenses  of  office 1,926,30 

Number  of  letters  received  per  week  for  delivery 5,083 

"        "      "  "          "    quarter  for  delivery 66,079 

And  for  a  year  considerably  over  a  quarter  of  a  million. 

Of  this  number  are  delivered  981  out  of  every  thousand ;  the  remainder,  less 
than  two  per  cent  of  the  whole,  being  advertised  as  "unclaimed,"  and  eventu- 
ally finding  their  way  back  to  the  writers  through  the  Dead  Letter  office. 

The  number  of  letters  sent  from  the  Galesburg  postoffice,  will  average,  all 
the  year  'round,  the  same  as  that  of  those  received — from  five  to  six  thousand 
weekly.  About  the  same  number  as  in  the  case  of  letters  received,  fail  from 
various  causes  to  reach  the  parties  addressed,  and  are  returned  to  the  writers 
through  the  Dead  Letter  office. 

The  money  order  system  is  of  recent  date  ;  but  the  business  is  steadily  on 
the  increase.  For  the  quarter  ending  March  31st,  1866,  the  aggregate  amount 


30  STATISTICAL      PAPER. 

^^S~^r^s*^s~\^/-**^*^~**S~*-S^~S~^-S**-'^^ 

of  the  orders  issued  (all  in  small  sums)  footed  up  $1,974,49-100 — of  orders 
paid,  $1,110,26. 

The  office  ranks  as  the  third  or  fourth  in  the  State,  and  the  literary  charac- 
ter of  our  people — as  shown  in  the  items  of  letters  received  and  sent — will 
challenge  any  town  of  like  size  to  produce  its  equal.  Many  letters  also  go 
directly  through  the  mail  car. 

Besides  what  comes  through  the  postoffice,  news  agents  distribute 


Daily  Papers 270 

Weekly  Political  Papers ~200 


Weekly  Miscellaneous  Pamphlets SO 

Monthly   Magazines 250 


Illlustrated  Papers 500 

Total  of  different  publications  regularly  taken  outside  of  the  Postoffice 1,070 

During  the  late  war  the  citizens  of  Galesburg  expended  from  $4,000  to 
$5,000  a  year  for  daily  news. 

OUR    RAIL   ROADS. 

Not  till  long  after  the  settlement  of  this  place  was  there  any  railroad  west 
of  the  Alleghanies.  Our  Pioneer  Fathers  were  about  eight  weeks  coming 
hither  from  Vermont ;  six  weeks  from  Central  New  York.  For  several  years 
a  merchant's  trip  to  New  York  took  eighteen  or  twenty  days ;  four  to  six  days 
to  Chicago.  A  trip  to  Chicago  and  back,  with  a  loaded  wagon,  required  two 
weeks.  When  the  Michigan  canal  was  opened  you  seemed  quite  near  to  Chi- 
cago ;  you  could  reach  that  village — as  it  then  was — by  stage  to  Peoria ;  steam- 
boat te  La  Salle  ;  then  by  canal  boat ;  in  forty-eight  hours — about  the  time 
now  required  to  reach  New  York. 

From  the  slow  and  hard  wagon,  to  the  stage  and  steamer,  was  a  great  change. 
But  what  a  change  from  the  coach  to  one  of  Pullman's  magnificent  $20,000 
sleeping  cars — splendid  as  a  palace — easy  as  a  cradle — gently  rocking  one  to 
sleep  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening — giving  him  pure  air  to  breathe  all  night — 
enabling  him  to  rise  in  Chicago  with  the  sun — wash  and  prepare  for  business 
as  if  at  a  first-class  hotel. 

The  first  railroad  idea  here  was  for  a  track  to  Peoria.  Fifteen  years  ago  a 
charter  was  obtained  for  a  road  from  Peoria  to  Oquawka,  to  run  two  and  a  half 
miles  south  of  Galesburg  ;  with  a  station  at  Knoxville  and  another  eight  miles 
distant,  on  the  county  line,  leaving  this  place — nowhere,  but  five  miles  from 
Knoxville.  Our  citizens  plead  for  a  station  at  this  point,  and  offered  to  take 
stock  to  the  amount  of  $20,000.  They  thought  only  of  reaching  Peoria,  and 
$jnarket  by  rail  and  Illinois  river.  There  was  also  a  charter  for  a  road  from 
Quincy  to  La  Salle — in  words  not  to  run  East  of  Knoxville,  and  in  thought  not 
to  run  West  of  that  place.  Again  Galesburg  was  left  out  in  the  cold. 

Despairing  of  accommodation  from  either  road,  if  ever  built,  the  people  here 
determined  to  reach  the  Rock  Island  road  at  Sheffield.  A  correspondence 
was  opened;  meetings  were  held ;  an  organization  formed  ;  a  charter  secured, 
small  subscriptions  obtained ;  the  route  surveyed,  and  Mr.  C.  M.  Carr  put  into 
the  field  as  agent  to  wake  up  the  people.  Still  the  enterprise  dragged.  Many 
stood  looking  towards  Paoria.  The  Rock  Island  company  failed  to  "  know 
their  day." 


STATISTICAL      PAPER.  31 

~f~^S~*^S~^S^S~**S~^S~\ls-^1s~>^lir^iiS^r-*^^ 

But  earnest  men  and  stern  difficulties  were*  educating  the  public  mind  and 
stretching  it  on  beyond  Sheffield  to  Aurora — the  terminus  of  the  Chicago 
and  Aurora  road — and  preparing  for  a  strike  direct  to  Chicago.  Fortune 
turned  on  a  single  incident,  a  casual  meeting  in  Boston,  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Colton 
with  Mr.  Grimes,  of  Iowa — now  U.  S.  Senator — and  Mr.  Wadsworth,  President 
of  the  Chicago  and  Aurora  road.  Thus  was  secured  important  aid  at  each  end 
of  the  proposed  road.  Soon  after  this,  Mr.  Brooks,  President  of  the  Michigan 
Central,  and  Mr.  Joy,  the  first  and  present  President  of  our  road,  were 
enlisted.  Eastern  capital  was  now  obtained,  and  the  road  made  certain.  The 
first  charter  was  enlarged;  the  road  was  built  and,  in  1854,  opened.  Finally, 
in  order  that  the  Peoria  and  Oquawka  road  might  be  finished,  the  ''Military 
Tract  "  road,  as  our  road  was  first  called,  had  to  buy  it.  The  C.  B.  &  Q.,  now 
has  400  miles  of  road. 

This  passage  of  history  is  given  to  show  what  Galesburg  enterprise  had  to  do 
to  secure  this  great  road. 

The  railroad  business  at  this  point  is  important.  Taking  the  month  of  May 
as  an  average  month,  the  amount  of  Merchandise  shipped  from  this  point  dur- 
ing the  last  year  was  40,831,176  Ibs.,  on  whica  was  charged  a  freight  of 
$104,554,64. 

Our  stock  and  grain  dealers  ship  largely  from  other  points.  At  this  station 
the  shipments  for  the  year  ending  June  1st,  1866,  have  been 

Grain .400  000  bushels    Sheep 200  head 

Cattle 2  600  head 

Hogs 9  000    " 


Horses 60 

BrooiaCorn 685  000  Ibs. 


Cash  collected  on  freight  received,  for  the  year $136,882,87. 

This  department  has  employed  seventeen  hands,  and  paid  for  their  labor 
$10,200  for  the  year. 

It  would  be  a  fact  of  interest,  if  known,  how  many,  during  the  first  ten  years 
after  the  settlement  of  the  place,  started  on  a  journey. 

The  number  of  passengers  by  rail  from  Galesburg  in  the  year  ending  April 
80th,  1862,  was  28,651 ;  in  the  year  ending  April  80th,  1866,  was  82,555. 
Increase  of  travel  in  four  years,  53,904. 

The  following  statement  from  Superintendent  Hitchcock  shows  the  increase 
of  business  in  the  train  department : 

TRAIN  MEN  EMPLOYED  AT  GALESBURG,  MAT,  1856. 

NO.  AMOUNT. 

Conductors 7 354  50 

Baggage  Man 1 35  00 

Brakemen 7  182  49 


Total    amount 15 $571  99 

TRAIN   MEN   EMPLOYED   AT   GALESBCRG,  MAY,  1866. 

KO.  AMOUNT. 

Passeuger  Conductors 11  712  36 

Freight  "         37  - 2  652  19 

Baggage  Men 9 430  62 

Passenger  Brakemen. 9  ._ __ ._ 338  06 

freight  "          75  3  119  39 

Total  amount 141 _ $7  252  61 

Amount  of  wages  for  twelve  months .$87  031  32 


32  STATISTICAL      PAPER. 

\-^N^%_/'\y'N-'X-''\X>v/X>"X^X-^N^'~xXXX-^/^ 

The  carpenter's  department)  has  done  a  large  amount  of  work.  The  present 
extensive  Freight  House,  and  Carpenter's  Shop,  were  built  in  1855 ;  the  large 
Passenger  House  in  1856  ;  the  Locomotive  Repair  Shop,  50x150,  in  1861-2. 
ThS  Car  Shop  was  burned  and  rebuilt,  50x180,  in  1863. 

At  different  times  other  buildings  have  been  erected,  as  the  present  office 
building,  storage  buildings,  and  an  engine  house  with  stalls  for  thirty-five 
engines.  This  department  employed  during  the  fall  of  1863  and  the  year  '64,  an 
average  of  180  men.  It  now  has  an  average  of  seventy-five  men,  on  a  yearly 
pay  of  $32,200. 

Arrangements  are  being  made  to  dig  a  large  well,  sufficient  to  supply  all  the 
water  that  may  be  needed  for  many  years,  at  a  cost  of  from  $8,000  to  $10,000. 
Other  improvements  are  contemplated,  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  increasing 
business  of  the  road. 

LOCOMOTIVE  DEPARTMENT. 

The  Locomotive  department  of  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R.,  at  Galesburg,  employs 
from  230  to  240  men  of  all  classes ;  whose  pay  ranges  from  $1  30  to  $3  40 
per  day. 

Average  monthly    expenditure  for  labor _ 11  311  00 

'•  "  "  material ._.  4  720  00 

"  "  "  "  oil,  Ac .- - 2  580  00 

$18  561  00 

THE   EXPENDITURES  FOR  THE     YEAR  ENDING  APRIL    30,  1866. 

Labor  on  engines.- .48  927  81  I  Oil  and  waste  on  engines -...11  107  80 

Material  on      " 3431913) 

Making  a  total  expense  on  engines  of. $94  354  74 

Labor  on  track,  buildings,  cars,  etc..40  135  63  I  Oil  &  waste  used  on  build'gs,  cars...  19  251  23 

Material  used  on     "  "      22  160  63 1  

$81  547  49 

For  Engineers,  Firemen,  and  Wipers,  etc.,  one  year $46  670  00. 

Making  a  total  of  Labor 135  733  44  I  Mak'g  a  total  of  oil,  tallow,  rags 30  359  03 

"      "  Material.-.. 56  479  76  |  

Total _ .., „_.._ $222  572  23 

TRACK   DEPARTMENT. 

The  number  of  men  employed  in  the  Track  Department  at  Galesburg  is  60- 
These  are  regular  men  and  work  steadily  the  whole  year  round.  Most  of  these 
are  men  with  families,  and  hence  probably  spend  or  leave  all  their  earnings  in 
Galesburg,  thus  materially  contributing  to  the  wealth  of  the  place. 

The  aggregate  pay  of  these  men  was  $30,475,00.  In  addition  to  these  regu- 
lar men,  there  were  employed  in  Galesburg,  in  the  construction  and  extension 
of  side-tracks,  etc.,  etc.,  twenty  men  for  about  seven  months,  at  an  expense  for 
labor,  teams,  in  grading,  etc.,  etc.,  of  about  $7,500,00;  a  good  share  of  which 
was  paid  to  men  who  are  permanent  residents  here. 

There  were  about  one  and  one-half  miles  of  new  side-track  and  extensions 
to  side-tracks  laid  in  Galesburg  during  the  past  year.  The  cost  of  material  for 
these  constructions  was  $18,000. 

THE   CAR     DEPARTMENT. 

This  department  has  employed  during  the  year,  on  an  average,  81  1-6  men  ; 
average  pay  per  month,  $47,09  ;  amounting  in  the  year  to  $45,863,53.  Value 
of  material  used  in  repairs,  $79,107,65  ;  total,  $124,971,18. 


STATISTICAL      PAPER.  33 

*~s~\^f\~^^/~**~/~\s~^s 

TELEGRAPH. 

When  this  prairie  was  purchased  for  a  town,  Prof.  Morse  had  not  asked  Con- 
gress for  aid  to  enable  him  to  test  his  great  discovery.  Not  till  1844  was  the 
telegraph  put  into  successful  operation  between  Washington  and  Baltimore. 
Mr.  Tubbs  furnishes  the  following  statement: 

"  In  May,  1856,  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  Telegraph  Company  owned  one 
wire  from  Chicago  to  Burlington — 207  miles — with  ten  offices.  Receipts  of 
Galesburg  office  about  one-fifth  their  present  amount.  In  May,  1866,  the 
Illinois  and  Mississippi  Telegraph  Company  owned  one  wire  from  Chicago  to 
Keokuk — 260  miles  ;  another  from  Chicago  to  Mendota — 85  miles — thence  over 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  to  Dunleith. 

"  The  Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  Railroad  (the  only  road  in  the  West 
owning  their  own  telegraph)  have  one  wire  over  the  entire  length  of  their 
road  and  its  branches ;  a  second  wire  from  Chicago  to  Mendota,  which  will  be 
extended  to  Galesburg  this  fall,  (1866);  a  third  wire  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  general  offices  in  Chicago  from  their  passenger  depot,  foot  of  Lake  street, 
via  South  Branch  Freight  Depot  to  their  extensive  docks. 

"Total  number  of  miles  of  wire  owned  by  the  road,  513  ;  total  number  miles 
on  line  of  road,  805 ;  number  of  offices,  59. 

"  We  claim  as  complete  a  system  of  Train  Dispatching  as  any  road  in  the 
country.  The  present  business  of  the  road  could  not  be  done  over  a  single 
track  without  it.  Since  its  adoption — two  years  ago — not  a  wheel  has  been  off 
the  track,  chargeable  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  it. 

"The  number  of  messages  received  and  sent  at  the  Galesburg  office  in  May? 
1856,  was  176;  in  May,  1866,  11,780.  Office  employees,  June,  1856,  operators 
one,  messengers  one  ;  June,  18C6,  operators  and  train  dispatchers,  six  ;  battery 
and  delivery  clerks,  two.  Office  salaries  June,  1856,  $30,00 ;  June,  1866, 
$721,00." 

These  figures  are  full  of  meaning.  Many  a  dispatch  contained  a  great 
tory — on^ single  telegram.fortunes  turn.  In  no  other  so  brief  a  form  is  there, 
or  can  there  be,  condensed  so  much  of  thought,  emotion,  and  business,  as  in 
the  telegrams  of  the  day. 

EXPRESS. 

Another  marked  fact  of  a  kindred  character  is  found  in  the  EXPRESS  BUSI- 
NESS at  this  point.  The  business  done  at  this  office  for  the  month  of 
January,  1855,  amounted  to  $78,00.  This  was  the  first  year  of  the  Express 
Business  at  this  point.  The  amount  in  the  month  of  January,  1866,  or  eleven 
years  later,  is  $2,477,  an  increase  of  $2,399. 

Taking  January  as  a  fair  average,  the  business  for  the  year  amounts  to  $29,724. 

Business  now,  could  not  dispense  with  the  Telegraph  or  Express. 

Thanks  to  the  gentlemenly  officials  of  the  road  for  aid,  cheerfully  rendered, 
in  obtaining  these  facts. 

Mr.  Sellon,  in  a  brief  history  of  Galesburg  published  in  1857,  states  that  the 


34  STATISTICAL      PAPER. 

'^S~^^^-'~^S~:*-S*^S^-S^S^>+rr^-'~\-'^-i^*S^^ 

whole  number  of  men  employed  in  the  several  departments  of  the  road,  at 
Galesburg,  was  145.  The  number  now  employed,  including  Express  men,  is 
634.  Their  annual  wages  amounting  to  $364,694,12.  This  Railroad  business 
itself  reveals  much  in  regard  to  the  business  of  the  city.  It  is  not  strange 
that  the  stock  of  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R.,  which  in  1860  was  only  38  cents,  is  now 
in  1866,  115  cents. 

As  this  portion  of  our  State  is  rapidly  developing ;  as  railroad  lines  are 
extending  Westward  from  Burlington  and  Quincy  to  the  Missouri  river,  to  be 
connected  with  the  great  National  Pacific  Road — who  will  grow  bold  enough 
to  predict  the  value  of  the  C.  B.  &  Q.,  stock  in  1876  ? 

Many  minor  interests  have  not  been  looked  into  for  lack  of  time.  But  in  the 
facts  here  given  we  have  some  results  worthy  of  thought.  Using  round  num- 
bers for  convenience,  we  have  of  laborers — mostly  mechanical  (including  the 
R.  R.  men)  eleven  hundred,  with  w  ages  amounting  to  $660,000.  We  have  an 
aggregate  of  business 

Stock  and  Produce .$1  600  000    Flouring  Mills $250  000 

Mercantile 2  006  000    " 

Manufactures 1  038  000 


Meat  Markets 100  000 


un 

f  en 


Total $4  994  000 

It  is  fair  to  state  the  aggregate  as  $5,000,000,  exclusive  of  many  smaller 
branches  of  business,  and  also  of  the  heavy  Railroad  business. 

Our  business  though  increasing,  is  sound  and  healthy.  Speculation  for  the 
future  is  not  the  work  of  these  figures.  They  give  the  facts  of  the  present. 
What  now  exists  is  far  beyond  the  anticipations  of  the  good  men  and  women 
who  looked  over  this  prairie  thirty  years  ago.  But  not  for  gain,  not  for  any- 
thing less  than  a  sound  Christian  education,  did  our  Pioneer  Fathers  come. 

This  should  still  be  the  great  end.  What  we  do  to  build  up  noble  characters 
in  ourselves,  and  in  the  generations  to  come,  in  the  millions  to  dwell  on  this 
old  magnificent  "  Military  Tract,"  is  the  great  thing. 

In  1836-7,  a  school  was  taught  at  the  Grove,  both  in  the  common  and  acad- 
emic branches,  by  Prof.  Losey  and  Miss  Lucy  Gay.  Another  school  was  opened 
in  the  winter  of  1837  by  Miss  Fanny  Hitchcock,  (Mrs.  Hayner)  in  a  small  house 
— erected  for  this  purpose — on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Leonard  Chappel,  East  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Hitchcock's.  A  singing  school  was  also  there  taught. 

Prof.  Churchill  states  that  "  a  public  school  was  opened  in  the  winter  of 
1839,  in  the  second  story  of  the  Academy  building — then  just  completed — the 
one  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Nelson  as  a  furniture  store — at  the  time  it  stood  on  the 

corner  of  Main  and  Cherry,  where  the  First  National  Bank  is  .to  be  built  this 
summer. 

"The  first  teacher  was  Mr.  Van  Meter,  the  man  who  has  been  so  long  at  the 
head  of  the  Howard  Mission,  N.  Y,  City.  In  a  ehort  time  it  was  removed  to  a 
store  building  owned  by  Matthew  Chambers,  fronting  what  is  now  the  Public 
Square — then  wild  prairie.  In  1839  or  '40,  the  first  public  school  house  was 
built  under  the  direction  of  C.  S.  Colton.  As  the  floor  was  inclined,  all  the 
old  scholars  will  remember  this  building  as  a  capital  place  to  slide  down  hill  in 
the  spaces  between  the  seats.  Among  the  many  teachers  who  held  rule  in  this 


STATISTICAL      PAPER.  35 

house  from  1840  to  1850,  were  Eli  Farnham,  Esq.,  James  H.  Noteware,  since 
Superintendent  ot  Public  Schools  for  Kansas,  Mr.  McCall,  for  many  years  a 
teacher  in  the  South,  and  recently  deceased,  Mr.  Marshal  De  Long,  Mr.  H. 
Gaston,  Mr.  Deberard,  Geo.  Churchill,  and  ladies  not  a  few.  About  the  year 
1850  the  district  was  divided  and  new  school  houses  were  built  to  accommo- 
date the  rising  generation.  This  sub-division  went  on  till  1856,  when 
there  were  in  the  town  eight  districts." 

During  the  year  1856,  "these  districts" — says  Mr.  J.  B.  Roberts,  the  present 
Superintendent  of  Public  Schools — "  were  consolidated  with  a  view  to  moro 
efficient  management  and  a  better  classification  of  the  schools.  No  well 
devised  measures  for  the  promotion  of  these  objects,  however,  were  attempted 
until  the  year  1859.  These  measures  were  but  partially  successful,  from  the 
fact  that  the  Board  of  Directors  were  limited  in  their  powers,  and  still  more 
in  the  means  at  their  command.  What  could  be  done  under  these  disabilities 
and  with  miserably  poor  and  insufficient  school  accommodations,  was  done.  In 
the  year  1861,  the  schools  were  organized  under  a  special  charter  from  the  Leg- 
islature, greatly  enlarging  the  powers  of  the  School  Board,  which  now  consists 
of  six  instead  of  three  members.  In  the  year  1865,  these  poM-ers  were  still 
further  enlarged  by  an  amendment  to  the  charter.  The  School  Board  have  it 
now  in  their  power,  by  an  enlightened  and  liberal  policy,  to  make  the  public 
schools  no  less  the  pride  and  honor  of  the  city  than  its  higher  institutions  of 
learning  have  been  in  the  past. 

"During  the  School  year  just  closed,  there  have  been  taught  between  fifteen 
and  sixteen  hundred  different  pupils.  The  average  membership  has  been  from 
nine  hundred  to  a  thousand.  The  number  of  teachers  employed  in  '64  and  '65  was 
eighteen.  During  the  past  year  the  number  has  been  less,  owing  to  limited 
school  accommodations,  as  rooms  previously  occupied  could  no  longer  be 
rented.  The  public  school  buildings  of  Galesburg  will  seat  586  pupils.  It  will 
readily  be  understood  why  several  of  the  schools  have  had  only  half-day  ses- 
sions. The  new  edifice,  when  completed,  will  increase  the  number  of  sittings 
by  about  seven  hundred.  This  building,  aside  from  being  the  best  proportioned 
and  most  comely  structure  of  any  kind  in  the  city,  will  be,  in  its  internal 
arrangements  and  appointments  as  perfect  as  possible.  It  will  contain  ten 
large  school  rooms,  a  hall  for  general  exercises,  public  entertainments,  and 
some  smaller  rooms  to  be  used  as  recitation  rooms  and  offices.  The  system  of 
ventilation  is  novel,  but  proved  by  experience  to  be  the  most  perfect  yet 
devised.  It  is  calculated  that  the  entire  body  of  air  in  each  school  room  can 
be  changed  every  twenty  minutes  without  opening  a  door  or  window.  It  is 
expected  that  this  building  will  be  completed  within  the  present  year,  at  a  cost 
of  $40,000.  Its  stone  tablet  bearing  the  date  "1866,"  will  be  looked  upon  by 
generations  to  come  as  marking  the  completion  of  one  of  the  noblest  enter- 
prises  in  the  history  of  our  city." 

Prairie  College  (now  Knox)  was  THE  OBJECT  for  which  Christian  men  and 
women  organized  and  built  up  this  colony. 


36 


STATISTICAL       PAPER. 


This  institution  is  still  in 
twenty  years  ago.  Still  it 
furnished  by  Prof.  Churchill 


its  infancy,  having  graduated  its  first  class  just 
has  done  a  good  work,  as  the  following  statistics 
,  plainly  show : 


V 

c 

I 

i 

0 

3 

ce 
'& 

te 

3 

S 

^ 

£ 

a 
<»  « 

• 

TJ 

X  — 

o  g 

5 

^ 

M 

1 

S-2 

i 

0    S 

"3  S 

i 

9 
~f- 

£ 

« 

0 

1 

o 

<c 

*o 
U 

-5 

E 

E 

t 

E 

Ho 

31 

|| 

ll 

fl 

•o 

tO 

-2 

•  .Q 

.G 

Us 

^3 

^ 

,0 

B 

.2 

j5 

fj 

™ 

^5j 

H  » 

o 

a 

d 

0 

•g, 

1 

.£ 

5 

*O 

"5 

•o 

- 

*c 

c 

" 

I 

<S 

I 
go 

S 

0 

in 

£ 

£ 

1 

3 

I 

V. 

i 

a 

j 

O 

? 

1837  to  1846 
Inclusive. 

9 

9 

15 

29 

56 

109 

699 

626 

1325 

14S4 

1847  to  1856 

Inclusive. 

60 

71 

101 

128 

199 

499 

40 

to 

85 

73 

218 

1471 

1149 

2620 

3337 

1857  to  1866 

Inclusive. 

53 

58 

73 

107 

149 

38 

425 

78 

102 

126 

107 

334 

1213 

944 

2157 

2916 

1837  to  1866 
Inclusive. 

131 

138 

189 

264 

404 

38 

1033 

118 

162 

210 

180 

552 

3383 

2719 

6102 

7687 

Of  the  grand  catalogue  total  of  7687  students,  I  estimate  that  there  have 
been  at  least  5,000  different  persons.  The  academic  department  was  opened 
in  1837.  First  freshmen  class  in  1841;  first  class  graduated  in  1846;  first 
class  in  the  Seminary  graduated  in  1851. 

Greatest    number   in    all  departments    for  any  one    year  was 442  in  1858 

"  "  "    the    College  "     "      "       "         "    59  "  1855 

Least    number   in  College  for   any  one    year   since    1847  was 32  "  1865 

Average  number  in  College  for  let  Decade 86 1-3 Seminary Academy. ..132  1-3 

"        "        "         «   2d        "  49  9-10  "  31  1-7  "          215  7-10 

"        "        "         "  3d        "  42  1-2  "  33  2-5  "  203  25 

"        "        "         "  three  Decades  42  41-45         •'  32  19-70          "  203  2-5 

Of  the  131  gentlemen  graduates  eleven  have  died;  thirty-eight  are  minis- 
ters ;  twenty-four  lawyers  ;  six  physicians  ;  fourteen  professors  and  teachers ; 
three  foreign  missionaries;  three  State  Agents — Home  Missionary  Societies; 
three  foreign  consuls;  two  Brevet-Brigadier  Generals;  forty-five  officers  and 
privates  in  army  of  volunteers.  Some  eight  or  ten  have  been  members  of  the 
State  Legislature,  and  others  are  bankers,  merchants,  manufacturers  or  farmers. 

For  a  dozen  years  after  graduating  its  first  class,  this  College  was  realizing 
the  great  idea  of  the  colonises,  was  the  main  object  of  interest,  and  the  power 
most  felt  in  this  community.  With  a  growing  population,  increasing  wealth? 
improved  public  schools,  why  should  not  the  College  have  continued  rising 
and  kept  pace  with  all  the  other  real  interests  of  the  place  ? 

The  catalogue  of  Lombard  University — just  published  gives  the  following 
summary  : 

Collegiate  Department Seniors  2 Juniors  Sophomores  4 Freshmen  3 

Scientific  "  "  2 "  1 "  14 

Ladies' Collegiate  "  "  1 First  year 10 

(Ancient  and  Modern  Languages 46"> 

Preparatory  Department,-*  Higher  English 113  V- 

(Common        " 48J 


9 
17 
11 

207 


244 


^  Another  educational  organization,  "  The  Young  Men's  Library  Association," 
deserves  mention.  This  association  was  founded  in  January,  1860,  (a  prelim- 
inary organization,  formed  in  1858,  was  merged  in  this.)  and  has  250  members 


STATISTICAL      PAPER.  37 

>~s^-S^*-*f^Sf**>*'~\~Jf***'~**^\^^^ 

and  a  Library  of  2850  volumes.  All  are  entitled  to  its  privileges  upon  the  pay- 
ment of  a  small  sum.  It  is  useful  and  prosperous.  Its  Library,  managed  as 
efficiently  as  now  by  Prof.  Hurd,  with  annual  additions,  may,  in  future,  be  an 
honor  to  the  city,  as  well  as  a  blessing  to  many  generations  of  young  men. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  decade  the  principal  object  of  general  interest  was 
this  house  of  worship,  which,  though  unfinished,  was  occupied  in  the  summer 
of  1846.  Here  for  twenty  years  the  people  of  this  town  have  held  most  of 
their  public  meetings,  for  lectures,  concerts,  and  a  great  variety  of  purposes. 
To  fit  it  for  service  for  another  decade  it  needs  for  improvements  within  and 
without,  an  expenditure  of  a  few  thousand  dollars. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  decade  the  main  College  buildings  wiere  rising  up 
to  adorn  the  city.  Now  the  main  building  is  that  for  the  High  School. 

For  the  beautiful  trees  now  shading  this  house,  we  are  much  indebted  to  a 
former  pastor,  Rev.  C.  M.  Tyler. 

Our  city,  which,  ten  years  ago  gloried  in  but  few  trees  besides  the  Locust,  is 
now  assuming  the  charming  appearance  of  an  Eastern  village  with  its  older 
trees,  of  Elm  and  Maple.  More  Elms,  gentlemen  !  more  Elms!  for  grace  and 
majesty  combined. 

Another  generation  will  marvel  that  not  till  1866  was  there  an  enclosure  or 
a  tree  in  the  centre  of  the  Public  Square,  nothing  on  the  bare  earth  but  the 
Liberty  Pole  and  city  scales.  Another  marked  improvement  made  in  the  last 
decade  is  in  sid<s  walks.  The  first  walk  was  built  around  "Colton's  Block." 

Many  amusing  stories  have  been  told  of  the  loss  of  rubbers,  shoes,  and  even 
of  boots  in  the  mud  of  those  days,  and  of  persons  becoming  not  lost  but 
"fixtures."  In  1856  but  few  short  spaces  were  covered  with  good  walks.  They 
now  extend  in  all  directions  quite  to  the  city  limits,  amounting  in  all  to  thirty 
miles  in  length,  and  costing  not  far  from  $50,000. 

A  people  of  Puritan  blood  and  spirit,  with  deep  religious  convictions  and 
anti-slavery  sentiments,  and  familiar  with  the  business  of  the  "  Underground 
Railroad  "  would  be  sure  to  make  a  good  record  in  a  war  for  the  salvation  of 
the  Republic. 

The  following  figures  furnished  by  Miss  M.  A.  Wes  t,  make  a  fair  show  of  the 
patriotism  of  Galesburg : 

No.  of  ra»n  enlisted  in  the  township 1200  I  Amount  of  bounty  paid .....423  950  00 

No.  of  men  died  in  the  army. 100  |  Am't  p'd  by  city  teSoldiew  families        1C  000 

Total $39  950  00 

Galtsburg  Soldier's  Aid  Society  for  soldiers,  and  soldier's  families,  disbursed 
stores  and  money : 


In  1862 $2  397  82 

In  1863 2  686  66 

In  1864 6  806  89 


Till  August  1865 $2  694  76 


Total  from  Galeubnrg  S.  A.  Society.^13  586  13 

Oalesburg  paid  to  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Commission!),  aside  from  the  8.  A  8 $6  614  T3 

For  Soldiers  an(J  Freedmon's  Beading 2  199  10 

To  all $«52  340  16 

The  facts  of  our  Church  History  demand  more  space  than  can  be  afforded 
now,  and  will  claim  attention  next  February — when  the  First  Church  will  be 
thirty  years  old. 


38  FESTIVAL      AND      EVENING      EXERCISES. 

An  incident  in  our  early  history  is  worthy  of  record.  A  Mr.  Davis  had 
enclosed  forty  acres  of  land,  with  the  intention  of  "  entering"  it.  But  the  land 
was  included  with  the  "entries ''  of  the  Purchasing  Committee.  So  also  was  a 
farm  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  acres,  occupied  by  a  Mr.  Lander.  They 
thought  the  Yankees  were  sharp  as  "speculators,"  and  felt  in  no  way  pleas- 
antly about  it.  But  not  long  after  the  question  was  started  at  "  a  raising," 
whether  the  right  to  the  forty  acres  of  Mr.  Davis  would  not  be  relinquished. 
The  suggestion  seemed  reasonable,  and  was  adopted.  Whereupon  Mr.  Lander 
was  encouraged  to  make  a  similar  application,  and  was  successful.  "  Well, 
now,"  said  they,  and  the  settlers  about  the  Grove,  "  let  the  Yankees  come- 
They  may  educate  out  children."  Who  shall  assign  a  market  value  to  that  high 
minded  transaction?  With  the  confidence  and  good  will  of  a  community,  an 
institution  of  learning  may  prosper,  but  not  without  such  sympathy. 

This  paper  may  not  be  closed  without  the  names  of  two  business  men :  the 
one  removed  in  the  early  part  of  this  last  decade,  and  the  other  at  its  close. 
Silas  Willard,  and  Albert  G.  Watkins.  Other  good  men  have  here  toiled  and 
rested,  but  for  none  does  the  public  heart  cherish  a  profounder  respect  or 
deeper  love. 

Greatness  is  in  the  end  aimed  at,  and  in  the  «pirit  with  which  business  is 
transacted.  The  greatness  of  our  Pioneer — as  of  our  Pilgrim  Fathers — was  in 
the  greatness  of  the  faith  and  purpose  with  which  they  undertook  "something 
good  for  mankind  and  God's  glory  in  these  remote  parts  of  the  earth." 

Let  all  our  business  men  rise  to  the  s  ame  hight,  and  be  crowned  with  a  like 
glory  when  all  use  of  figures  shall  have  passed  away. 


FESTIVAL   AND   EVENING    EXERCISES- 

AT  the  close  of  the  afternoon  exercises  the  audience  adjourned  to  the  chapel 
for  supper.  This  room —  recently  refitted — was  tastefully  decorated  for  the 
occasion.  Across  the  wall,  at  the  upper  end,  ran  the  words,  in  evergreen 
letters,  "  He  hath  led  us,  by  a  right  way,  to  a  city  of  habitation."  Over  the 
entrance  was  a  pyramid  of  flowers,  having  on  one  side  a  model  of  a  log  house, 
with  the  words,  "Log  City,  1836,"  and  on  the  other  a  modern  house  represent- 
ing "Galesburg,  1866."  The  houses  were  transparent,  and  when  illuminated 
appeared  finely.  Festoons  of  evergreens,  gracefully  connecting  the  side  walls 
with  the  chandelier,  adorned  the  center.  Th  e  tables  were  as  inviting  as  shining 
silver,  fragrant  flowers,  delicious  viands,  and  attentive  waiters  could  make  them. 

The  old  folks'  table  was  the  rallying  point  for  old  settlers,  and  a  happy  group 
they  seemed  as  they  shook  hands  and  laughed  over  reminiscences  of 
the  good  old  times.  Over  it  presided  one,  who  thirty  years  ago  came  here  a 
bride,  now  assisted  by  the  brides  of  her  two  sons.  Outside,  ujider  a  bower, 
between  the  chapel  and  gate,  strawberries,  ice-cream,  and  lemonade  were  strong 
attractions ;  while  under  the  refreshing  shade  of  the  trees  the  old  folks  renewed 
old  friendships,  and  the  young  folks  formed  new  ones,  till  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  when  Prof.  Fuhrman,  who  presided  at  the  organ  during  all  the  exer- 


FESTIVAL      AND      EVENING      EXERCISES.  39 

cises,  recalled  the  assembly  to  the  Church,  where  addresses  were  made  by  Kev. 
H.  Foote,  first  pastor  of  the  Church,  who  gave  some  pleasing  reminiscences  of 
early  times — of  the  way  people  became  "  fixtures  "  in  the  mud — and  how  he 
had  been  shipwrecked  in  Cedar  Fork — running  his  wagon  tongue  into  the  mud, 
so  as  nearly  "  to  strike  ile," — leaving  nothing  t  o  be  seen  of  the  wagon  but  the 
shadow  of  the  end  board ;  by  Kev.  Geo.  W.  Duffield,  Jr.,  pastor  of  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  who  in  a  happy  speech,  affectionately  claimed  a  place  in 
the  brotherhood ;  by  B.  S.  Hanneman,  Esq.,  of  Knoxville,  who  with  J.  G.  San- 
born  and  their  wives,  were  first  to  offer  to  the  infant  colony  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  from  her  five  year  old  sister,  who  now  owns  the  court  house  and 
poor  farm.  Also  by  several  old  settlers:  Joseph  Holyoke,  Eli  Farnham,  J.  G. 
West,  Prof.  H.  E,  Hitchcock,  Marcus  Belden,  telling  how  he  had  "  carted " 
water  to  run  a  mill  at  Knoxville,  C.  S.  Colton,  who  explained  the  one  per  cent, 
profits  of  the  early  days.  Prof.  Churchill  intr  oduced  a  choir  of  old  settlers, 
who  had  not  sung  together  for  twenty  years.  They  sang  a  piece  which  they 
had  sung  together  at  a  musical  Convention  held  in  the  old  Academy,  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago,  and  several  times  during  the  evening  quickened  our  memories 
of  old  times  by  their  music.  Letters  were  read  from  President  Blanchard> 
Revs.  Sanford  Richardson,  and  W.  E.  Holyoke,  expressing  their  deep  interest 
in  the  occasion,  and  their  regrets  at  not  being  able  to  be  present.  The  closing 
address  was  made  by  Rev.  J.  E.  Roy,  and  was  a  fitting  close  to  the  exercises  of 
the  dayt  His  tribute  to  the  founders  of  the  town  and  College  was  given  most 
heartily,  and  his  sketches  of  early  days  were  graphic  and  pleasing. 


ERRATA 


Page  4 — 28th  line,  for  "has,"  read   "have  saved." 

Page  7— last  line,   for  "1855,"  read  "1835." 

Page  30 — 36th  line,  for    "market,"  read   "a  market." 

Page  32 — 3d  line,  for  "locomotive,"  read  "car." 

And  add  at  the  end  of  4th  line  :  "The  Locomotive  Repair  Shop,  60x180 
with  a  wing  60x60." 

Page  33 —  29th  line,  for  "one,  &c.,"  read"  on  single  telegrams." 

Page  34 — after  the  21st  line,  the  following  paragraph  should  have  been 
inserted : 

"For  the  accommodation  of  this  business  we  have  two  Banks — the  First 
National,  with  a  capital  of  $150,000.  Net  gain  prior  to  May  dividend, 
$15,022,55.  Amount  of  dividend  declared,  6  per  cent.;  profits  over  dividend 
declared,  $5,548,90;  5  per  cent,  retained  as  tax,  $751,13.  Second  National 
Bank — capital,  $100,000.  Net  Gain  prior  to  dividend,  $8,111,45;  amount  of  div- 
idend declared,  $1,795,67  ;  5  per  cent,  retained  as  tax,  $405,56." 


Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. Inc. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
PAT.  JAM  21, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

977.349B29H  C001 

A  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE:  COMMEMORATIVE  OF 


